Chapter 15 IGNORANCE Summary

Chapter 15: Ignorance (21 Lessons for the 21st Century)
From an evolutionary perspective, it has been advantageous to trust in the

knowledge of others. But like other traits that may have worked well in the past
but may not be useful today, the illusion of knowledge can be dangerous. We live
in a more complicated world and few people understand the limitations of their
knowledge.
Consequently, some who know next to nothing about meteorology or

biology nevertheless propose policies regarding climate change and genetically
modified crops, while others hold extremely strong views about what should be
done in Iraq or Ukraine without being able to locate these countries on a map.
People do not seek out new knowledge that challenges their existing
paradigms but trap themselves in an echo chamber of like-minded friends and
subscribe to news feeds that are agreeable to them. Their beliefs are rarely
challenged. The problem is that facts don’t matter since people rarely change
their minds when they are presented with sheets of statistical date, it simply isn’t
how human beings operate.
And it may be that the belief in individual rationality is a product of liberal

groupthink. it may be the case that individual rationality is overvalued. Harari
recalls a scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where a crowd of starry-eyed
followers mistake Brian for the Messiah.
Brian tells his disciples that ‘You don’t need to follow me, you don’t need to
follow anybody! You’ve got to think for yourselves! You’re all individuals! You’re
all different!’ The enthusiastic crowd then chants in unison ‘Yes! We’re all
individuals! Yes, we are all different!’ Monty Python were parodying the
counterculture orthodoxy of the 1960s, but the point may be true of the belief in
rational individualism in general. Modern democracies are full of crowds shouting
in unison, ‘Yes, the voter knows best! Yes, the customer is always right!’
It isn’t merely that groupthink affects ordinary voters but presidents and CEOs.
The powerful do not prioritize the discovery of truth or seeing reality for what it
is. They are driven to changing reality whenever they can. There is a pragmatic
consideration: how to allocate time effectively?
Leaders are thus trapped in a double bind. If they stay in the centre of power, they
will have an extremely distorted vision of the world. If they venture to the margins,
they will waste too much of their precious time.
https://unearnedwisdom.com/chapter-15-ignorance-21-lessons-for-the-21st-century/
Chapter Fifteen – Ignorance

Just like animals, humans make most decisions based on emotional
reactions and shortcuts. But, emotions and heuristics are not sufficient in the
modern world. The key to human success in the modern world is our ability to
think together in large groups. This has allowed us to rely on others’ skills for
almost our needs. Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach call this the “knowledge
illusions.” With our current collective knowledge, finding the truth through
individual experimentation is a waste of time. We are better off remaining
individually ignorant but create collective knowledge.
https://www.getstoryshots.com/books/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-summary/
PART IV: TRUTH

If you feel overwhelmed and confused by the global predicament, you are on the right track.
Global processes have become too complicated for any single person to understand. How then
can you know the truth about the world, and avoid falling victim to propaganda and
misinformation?
15. Ignorance: You Know Less than You Think

…while our emotions and heuristics were perhaps suitable for dealing with
life in the Stone Age, they are woefully inadequate in the Silicon Age. (222)
| Not only rationality, but individuality too is a myth. …we think in groups. … What
gave Homo sapiens an egg over all other animals and turned us into the masters
of the planet was not our individual rationality but our unparalleled ability to
think together in large groups. (222)
| Individual humans know embarrassingly little about the world, and as history
has progressed, they have come to know less and less. (22)
cf. The Knowledge Illusion

Most of our views are shaped by communal groupthink rather than individual
rationality, and we hold on to these views due to group loyalty. Bombarding
people with facts and exposing their individual ignorance is likely to backfire.
Most people don’t like too many facts, and they certainly don’t like to feel stupid.
(223)
Similarly the liberal belief in individual rationality may itself be the product of
liberal groupthink. … Modern democracies are full of crowds shouting in unison,
“Yes, the voter knows best! Yes, the customer is always right!” (224)
THE BLACK HOLE OF POWER
Great power thus acts like a black hole that warps the very space around it. The
closer you get to it, the more twisted everything becomes. (225)
If you really want truth, you need to escape the black hole of power and allow
yourself to waste a lot of time wandering here and there on the periphery.
Revolutionary knowledge rarely makes it to the center, because the center is built
on existing knowledge. … That’s why you need to waste so much time in the
periphery: while it might contain some brilliant revolutionary insights, it is mostly
full of uninformed guesses, debunked models, superstitious dogmas, and
ridiculous conspiracy theories. (226)
| Leaders are thus trapped in a double bind. If they remain at the center of
power, they will have an extremely distorted vision of the world. If they venture
to the margins, they will waste too much of their precious time. (226)
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/21-lessons-for-the-21st-century-
reflections-critical-notes/

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How does the author describe human decision making?

What does the author say about individual rationality?

Chapter 15: Ignorance (21 Lessons for the 21st Century)

From an evolutionary perspective, it has been advantageous to trust in the

Consequently, some who know next to nothing about meteorology or

And it may be that the belief in individual rationality is a product of liberal

Chapter Fifteen – Ignorance

PART IV: TRUTH

15. Ignorance: You Know Less than You Think

cf. The Knowledge Illusion

THE BLACK HOLE OF POWER

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