Collect Experiences. Not Things. :')

February 20, 2018

Why I travel?

Why do I travel? To falsify my personal "conventional wisdom".  Historically, falsifying my "conventional wisdom" has been enlightening.  I enjoy being enlightened.

Granted, falsifying "conventional wisdom" isn't for everybody. Toppling some peoples’s beliefs can topple them. It can destroy them. If you were told as a child that God exist and he dictated the bible to humans. Then later come to realize that humans wrote the bible themselves and created a God to believe in. It could be devastating.

Falsification is the basis of science.  As a student of science, when I first read Karl Popper’s “falsification theory” it resonated with me profoundly. Falsification is synonymous to testability. He simply illustrates the concept by stating "all swans are white, until a black swan appears". In retrospect, the statement "all swans are white" is not true. It hasn't been falsified. Falsification strives for questioning, for falsification, of hypotheses instead of proving them. I feel the same way about my beliefs. They aren't necessarily true or correct. They just haven't been falsified yet.

Falsification is also a great way to understand yourself  The pivotal points in my life have always been centered on falsifying. Falsifying my prior belief and establishing a new belief motivates me. The new belief always rings truer. Always. It must. Otherwise, I would maintain my "conventional wisdom" or prior belief.

When I’ve told people that I believe nothing is true (they just haven't been falsified. They've told me that I’m “cynical” or  “very negative”.  I always respond with "nope. it just means I have an open minded”. This philosophy always avails me to change, new ideas and beliefs.

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