When you wake up, most people brush their teeth, with tooth paste. Ever asked why?
Ok most people will answer for healthy teeth. Ok... how does that work?
Someone told you? How to verify? Have you verified?
What if you don't brush your teeth? What if you brushed your teeth but don't use toothpaste?
Most of the time our answer is just that we learnt this when we are young, or we trust the dentist. Besides that, most of us don't really ask why.
(I'm not going to answer this question, cos the post is about not about brushing teeth.)
Long time ago, people believed that the world was flat, people believed that the planets revolved around the Earth. Simply cos... someone else told them so.
Isn't this similar to trusting your dentist?
You can say some researchers have done studies on this, but similarly, last time, people also watched the stars and planets and concluded that the Earth was the center of everything.
The common folk wouldn't watch the stars so they can't make any conclusion so they trust someone else to do the "research" for them.
Same for the dentist, we don't really do our own research about brushing teeth. We trust some "authority" to tell us that brushing teeth is good for us.
How do we know the Earth is round? Have you seen it? Yes? NO... you've only seen pictures of it.
There are only maybe 24 people who have seen the whole Earth. But they have taken pictures. Are the pictures real? How do you know?
People who work at the International Space Station cannot see the whole Earth.
There are supposedly some experiments you can do on Earth to determine that the Earth is round, do you know any of them? Have you tried doing any of them?
Once again, we rely on trust, we trust someone has done their work and we take this knowledge as good.
What about bacteria and mold?
We've learnt since young that it's bad for us?
Then why are we eating yogurt, kimchi, blue cheese, brie, etc?
From what I know, there are billions of bacteria and many different kinds of mold. Only a handful will harm humans. Even if we eat the bad ones, there's still a chance that the immune system will take care of it and nothing bad will happen, even if something happens, it's probably some diarrhea, and very rarely, people die from it if it is treated properly.
What about expiry dates?
I've talked about this before. Who told you that foods past expiry cannot be eaten? Was there any announcement? Did we learn this in school? Did we listen to any "authority" on the matter? Even the manufacturers don't say that the food can't be eaten. They just stamp a date on the box and humans just assume it can't be consumed.
Food isn't connected to the internet to know when to spoil. They can't see the date on the packaging and determine that it will spoil when the clock strikes 12. But yet many people still dispose items based on expiry dates.
Who said you need to work your whole life?
How about retirement ages?
Who said you can only retire at 55? 65? 67? The Government? Your parents? Or societal expectations?
Last time, when people were farmers and the financial system wasn't robust, it makes sense that people worked til old age, cos it's not easy to make investments and have passive forms of income. So people needed to keep farming and working so that they can keep getting food.
But in this capitalistic society, it's pretty easy to create different streams of income if you have some capital.
The retirement age is not really retirement age, the age that you can retire. The retirement age in Singapore is actually the... Can withdraw CPF age. In truth, you can retire anytime as long as you are able to financially support yourself and maybe the people around you, if necessary.
Why do we keep our salaries secret from each other?
Why don't we share this knowledge with our colleagues, then we are better able to assess if the company is paying us adequately. Those who feel they are paid less than what they are worth can leave, those who feel they are paid more will continue to stay. But somehow we don't share this info... Why?
Same as bonus there's no real loss to share the info. In fact, as a collective, all the staff will be better able to assess their own value within the company and decide to leave or stay.
Why do we eat meat? Why do we eat vegetables, fruits? Why do we drink milk?
How much nutrition do we need? We learnt about the food pyramid. Is that true? Is it valid? I'm sure many of us has tried many different diet plans. Definitely many other diet plans are better than what we've learnt about with the food pyramid.
Is climate change real?
At best I can only trust the "experts" and their explanation about carbon emissions and all that. I won't ever know for sure. I don't mind making some changes to my life, simply cos it helps me save money. Not too much of an inconvenience for myself.
But how would I know that the Sun isn't just getting hotter? I don't know.
Why does money have value?
Ask your parents. See if they know the answer.
Why do you wear underwear?
Why do people like buying things? Do people like the things? Or do they like the feeling they get when buying the thing? Or do they like the feeling they have when other people look at them owning the thing?
Is democracy the best political system?
Is competition really good for the economy?
From what I see, competition allows for improvements cos companies are afraid someone will take their market share. But also, due to competition, there is a lot of wastage. Competition doesn't prevent monopolies from forming. Governments prevent monopolies.
Anyway, the idea for today's post is... a lot of things, we don't know whether it's true or not. We just trust some "authority". Many times, we don't have the experience of expertise to do any research into it. But sometimes, we can experiment and think for ourselves. Sometimes, it's not so important. So what if the Earth is really flat or round. My life still goes on. But other things, could help you save money or may make you live life very differently. Imagine not needing to wear underwear! That would be totally life changing.
So much "knowledge" we take for granted as truth, but actually, a lot of it, is just FAITH.
So... you see... sometimes, we do need to think for ourselves and not just listen to other "experts"...
How we live our lives, how we plan for our future, how we manage our finances, etc.
Cos many things we think we "know", actually we don't know. We've just been told by someone else.
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