The Honesty Penalty

Socrates is credited with saying, "I know only that I don't know." Socratic ignorance, it's called. Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but Darth Grampus considers that claim, to know only that you don't know, to be about the most honest self-reflection ever made.

Today, there seems to be little to no value found in that kind of honesty. 

Perhaps the purpose of this dichotomy is to keep one from straddling a fence.

Consider: the algorithms we all work for? The ones that provide suggestions to our YouTube, Insta and other social media feeds? There is a definite bias against the "middle of the road" content in these algorithms. 

For example, if one is, say, super Pro-Trump, the algorithm loves their content. If one is super anti-Trump, the algorithm loves their content. But the middle riders? Pssh... you're not likely to see their content on your feed.

That's just a 1s and 0s example of what I'm talking about, but it mirrors the broader human experience. Even when people with "middle of the road" views vastly outnumber those on either extreme, who gets all the press? Who gets the overwhelming majority of the attention? It doesn't matter at all how rational, or even right, the middle-road idea might be. The extreme position gets all the attention.

Humility doesn't sell, however valuable it might be. That's a bit odd to me as I write it. The price of humility is often pretty steep. We may come face to face with how feeble, fragile, inadequate, or ignorant we are in the process of being humbled. But the fruits can be of much greater value. Humility is a blessing of considerable cost that seems to have lost its perceived market value in this high-paced, attention economy. This is a sad truth, whatever remains of humility's intrinsic or personal value. 

I'm not sure what to think of that. That's how things are though, no matter what those thoughts may be. There's a lesson here, but I'm not quite sure what it is yet. It puts my commitment to authenticity at odds with the certainty seemingly required for one's ideas or views to be considered by a wider audience.

More on that another time. Until then, I'd love to know what you think about this odd dichotomy. What motivates the obvious honesty penalty? Is certainty really of greater value than the honesty of Socratic ignorance?

Thank you very much. I hope you got value equal to the time investment you made to read this post.