“I don’t understand myself”

Do you ever think to yourself “I don’t understand myself” (usually in the hours after doing something incredibly awkward or stupid)? 

Don’t worry, neither does anyone else. The belief that we understand what’s going on at the base-layer of our brains is a convenient delusion.

We’re a bit like a computer. You don’t interact directly with 1’s and 0’s on the screen. The user-interface is a many-layered abstraction.

Similarly, you don’t interact directly with your own thoughts and beliefs. The words are a many-layered abstraction of something far too complicated to understand directly.

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash