Is this question easy to answer, or difficult?

It seems simple. Knowledge is valuable if it helps you surive and prosper. If you like knowing things for the sake of it, then I suppose all knowledge helps you prosper. I think that is a good way to be. But you still have to navigate the world, both physically and socially. That takes knowledge.

Although maybe it takes less knowledge than in the past. I wonder. It certainly requires very different knowledge. The environment has changed. So the means of navigating it has changed. Thanks to machines and, especially, computers.

There are still people who need to know older, simpler, pre-electricity, pre-industrial ways of knowing the world. Someone must build the computers, and write the sofware. We need geographers to make map software. We need physicists to launch satellites.

The problem is that there is so much to know, and very few good guides to the third environment: knowledge itself. There is so much knowledge, that you have to prioritize what you learn, or you will fail to learn much, if anything, useful.

Sadly, this may describe large numbers of people today. There are unlimited distractions. Certainly more than enough to fill a thousand lifetimes. These forms of specious knowledge can be pleasing, but they are rarely useful. A good life requires pleasure and joy. If we can get them from knowledge, that is wonderful. But if that is all we get, we won’t get it for long.

If I were to design a pedagogy, it would start from the perspective of navigation. Life is a metaphorical journey. Sure, you can wander around, smell the flowers, listen to the music, watch the action. That’s great! Do that! But what will you do when you get hungry, thirsty, or tired?

The trend to make life easy is not one that I admire. The point of life is not ease. There are many stupid and irritating tasks. Yes, one is better off delegating them to stupid machines. But not the understanding of why they are important. There are many difficult tasks which are not stupid, and should not be neglected, and only delegate if one has more important concerns.

We don’t always feel pride in caring for things that matter. Or so it seems. That’s an obstacle. I am no exception. I spent most of my life avoiding responsibility. I did learn, eventually. Better off me, and those around me. We are all free to choose how much responsibility to accept. But we should take what responsibility we can for ourselves. Without neglecting others.

Life is difficult. Why don’t we prepare one another better? In practise, it comes down to one generation preparing the next. Different groups sabotage one another, including one another's children. It is awful: paretsn who pit their child against others. Propagating the misery of pathological competition.

Many parents don’t even want the best for their own children. They want primarily obedience, and an improved—to their mind—version of themselves. Or a mere replica. Some parents are so threatened by their children that they sabotage them, too. Demanding performance without preparation. Some people are broken. Pity their children!

To upend this practise would be radical. Also risky, for the revolutionary. We need more open-source teaching and training. An encyclopedia was a great start. But we need to take the next step.