# The Joy of Not Knowing - Synthesis A By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-11-03 There is great wisdom in the insight, “When I refuse to give answers, I’m not withholding knowledge, I’m protecting joy.” This is difficult, but not impossible, to enact organizationally. As indicated, “performance reviews have no category for ‘protects the joy of learning’.” That is a shame. They would benefit greatly from that inclusion. The joy of not knowing is expanded rather than diminished by learning, as there is joy both in learning itself and in learning that there is so much more to learn. An inexhaustible amount to learn. Much damage has been done through the commodification of knowledge. At its most fundamental, the commodification of knowledge transforms it from an end to a means. In many ways, it has become an expensive and inefficient means to an unattainable end. In our society, education is largely sold as if obtaining a certain type of credential guarantees a desired standard of living or quality of life. Such assurances might be probabilistically accurate within a relatively fixed time horizon, but can never be assured for a given individual or sustained indefinitely. Making everything a transaction obfuscates that it is the action, not the outcome, that produces value. Work in employment, study in education, is what is important. Each can seem like a drag when one is focused exclusively on the outcome, and that only as a means to an end. Too much is lost in this process. Clearly, not everybody, or even most, will read and understand this. But for those who do, this message is meant for you. If you take time to learn for its own sake, you are on the right track. If you are a manager and you provide space for those under your charge to grope for solutions in their uncertainty, you are on the right track. Joy will be yours. This joy can’t be monetized, diminished, or exhausted. The more one learns, the more one comes to realize that learning in solidarity with others is enriching. It is more rewarding to receive an insightful comment from someone you respect and consider a true peer than always to be the smartest person in the room. Individual dominance is overrated in our society. Competition is beneficial; dominance is destructive. Commodification conflates whatever it exchanges and is therefore incapable of nuance. Discovering the joy of learning is essential from breaking the commodity form of social domination. #### Related Items [[Joy]] [[Wisdom]] [[Knowledge]] [[Society]] [[Learning]]