WHAT CAN I say to people who know almost everything? There was a time when I surely knew, because I’d just graduated from college myself, after writing down the sum of all human knowledge on exams and research papers. But that great pedagogical swilling-out must have depleted my reserves, because decades have passed and now I can’t believe how much I don’t know! Looking back, I can discern a kind of gaseous exchange in which I exuded cleverness and gradually absorbed better judgement. Wisdom is like frequent-flyer miles and scar tissue: if it does accumulate, it happens by accident while you’re ...
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