A friend once argued with me long ago that “Nobody knows you better than yourself”. I argued back that in some cases others can know better about you than yourself. Looking back at the argument today, I realize it was a pointless argument. We both were right.
Nobody Knows You Better Than Yourself
This was the argument that my friend made. His argument was totally right. Considering the amount of information you have about yourself, nobody knows you better than yourself. Your past history, your likes and dislikes, your thoughts, your secrets. The list goes on.
We See What We Want to See
As I said above, you have all the information about yourself but are you sure your brain processes it the right way?
The truth is, our view of ourselves is affected a lot by our ego, or what we want to see. Sometimes we think we are terrible at something but in reality, we are not that terrible. Sometimes we think we are too good at something but in reality, we are not that good.
The reason for all this is that our brain is very good at distorting information. We see what we want to see, but it might not be the reality. When we are in a bad mood, we remember all the bad memories in the past and makes a conclusion that we are terrible. Similarly, when we are in a good mood, we remember all the good memories and feel confident in ourselves. And in reality, we are somewhere in between!
The solution…
So, what is the solution? How can you see the real ‘YOU’?
The solution lies in the statement I made.
“You have all the information about yourself, but your ego distorts the information”
The obvious solution is to get rid of your ego, which I think is very difficult, or may be impossible. But what about your friends? Your friends don’t have any stake in your ego, which means, your friends can see you for what you really are.
But there is a problem. Your friends don’t have all the information about you. So, you have to find a friend who you trust and pass as much as information about you to your friend. And eventually, he’ll be the better judge of you.
Wait there is one more problem. Will your friend tell you that you suck at something? Your friend wouldn’t want to let you down. Factors like courtesy come in the way when it comes to your friend telling you about yourself. But these factors disappear when you are not around. So, what your friend tells about you when you are not around might be more accurate. So, try eavesdropping once in a while. Don’t get caught though!
Another conclusion I can come up is that machines are going to become your best judge, in the near future. They have all the information, not distorted by ego, and no factors like courtesy come in the way.
