Ignorance is Bliss?
I'll venture that most people go through life barely knowing their own distinct skills and talents, that which God, nature, or genetics have granted them and with which they fall into the 90% percentile. Why is this? Most people aren't given to that type of self-analysis and we don't systematically measure abilities or traits other than IQ, height, weight, or occasionally for sports measurements like speed or strength. Therefore, most people go through life ignorant of where they'd fall on a distribution curve, content to assume they are average or above-average, as few people will determine themselves to be below-average in any category, sans specific measurement.
So what, you say? For many people ignorance is bliss. How would it change your life to know that you had traits or abilities that were rare and favored? Hmmmm. Now I have you thinking. Would you seek ways to leverage those rare traits and abilities or would you "hide them under a bushel?" Conversely, what if you were to discover that you were in the bottom 10% on a certain favored trait or ability and there was something you could do to improve it? Would you take steps to do so or just be content to do nothing?
The determination of skills and abilities has been of interest to man for thousands of years, but usually as it pertained to survival. For example, Hans might have been the best tracker or Karl the best bowsman, and the skills that aided survival were identified. For most people in the United States these hunting skills are no longer favored and we've turned our interest to other skills and traits, so many that it can boggle the mind...unless you are particularly skilled at handling complex models and numerous mathematical formulas.
What's has changed in the last 20 years is that we now have computers that are fast enough to easily run complex calculations, software that has the capacity to identify specific traits and one's placement on the distribution curve, and a delivery system (the Internet) that facilitates mass testing on hundreds of traits and abilities. And yet we haven't made much progress in the identification of who can do what the best.
Which brings me back to my post title...is ignorance bliss? Are we better off not knowing what we might be able to do that others can't?
