Practical uncertainty - believe less, be less certain

Entrance to Centre Court, Wimbledon

Believe less.

Be less certain.

Or rather, 

believe this one certainty:

there is always more to learn.

Learn well from your mistakes.

Your wins are nothing.

Self-aggrandizement from wins,

is a card-house

founded on luck.

Your losses are learning opportunities,

personal pain is the powerful teacher.

Lose that opportunity,

you lose everything!

Ask questions,

and pay attention.

Nurture conversations, dialogues, discussions, and even debates,

but aim for discovery rather than destination,

pursue exploration rather than exposition.

Better to question
than to answer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,

and treat those two imposters just the same."

  -- Rudyard Kipling, "If"

"Triumph is the real foe; it's Disaster that's your teacher ... It's Disaster that's the antidote to that greatest of delusions, overconfidence."

  -- Maria Konnikova, The Biggest Bluff (2020)

"If we imagine to ourselves that we have to stake the happiness of our whole life on the truth of any proposition, our judgment drops its air of triumph, we take the alarm, and discover the actual strength of our belief" 

  -- Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

"[One useful practice] is calibrating the strength of your beliefs. It's also about becoming comfortable with the fact that there's no such thing as a sure thing--ever... Leave your certainty at the door."

  -- Maria Konnikova, The Biggest Bluff(2020)