Albert Einstein among many other statements he made, famously said “the more knowledge the less ego, the less knowledge the more ego”.
Researchers in psychology have gone on to prove just that. Not surprisingly, genuine knowledge does bring down the ego. Ego, the word itself has quite a negative connotation and by many accounts emanates from fear.
So are we to believe that the literate ones have more humility. Certainly not. Knowledge encompasses far more than just literacy and being literate is more about opportunities one gets. Though, it must be said that there are many among us who acquire literacy in hard conditions by creating the opportunities for themselves.
Self interest is prevalent among most of us. Knowledge does help us create that balance between self interest and the interest of others. Compassion towards others is a necessity and not a luxury.
Those of us who wish evolve as humans work on ourselves in quieting the ego on a daily basis thus achieving the qualities of forgiveness, gratitude, mutual love, courage, a sense of responsibility, altruism and tolerance.
It is unrealistic to see ourselves in positive light all the time. We all make mistakes. The trick is to acknowledge those mistakes and move on. Make self evolution a matter of course. Cynicism is boring and passe.
According to the opinion of Professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic it’s interesting to note that individuals who suffer from lower self confidence which I translate as less bravado and ego, go on to achieve much more in life. Although, he probably mainly speaks about success in terms of gains in career, he does make some pertinent points such as lower self confidence makes you pay attention to negative feedback and be self critical and that it reduces the chances of coming across as arrogant or being deluded.
The world we live in today with its extremely fast paced life it probably is a good idea to stop, think, acquire all the real knowledge we can and make our and others’ lives better.
Photo: Shutterstock
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