“Knowledge is power”, “knowledge is treasure”, “knowledge can change lives”, etc. There are many views on knowledge, but most are positive. Is knowledge always good?

The answer is… it depends.

The line lies between knowing enough and knowing as much as possible. If you aim at obtaining sufficient knowledge to do a certain thing in your life, then probably there would be nothing wrong, but if you seek the ultimate, absolute truth, to fully understand the world, then the path ahead can be quite excruciating.

Knowledge is finite, and ignorance is infinite, which is necessarily so, because without darkness, we would not know light. Simply put, the world is vast and everything is information, while human beings are limited and we start to learn about the world from zero, and the world has always been there to begin with, so it is unthinkable that limited beings could ever know all about what is immensely vast and eternally present.

On one hand, knowledge helps us increase our chances of survival and improve our lives. But on the other hand, the positive effect of knowledge has a limit, going past which could cause pain and suffering. Thus, knowledge, as valued as it is, is perhaps not for everyone. Only those who are curious enough, those who are ambitious and courageous enough, can accept the path of knowledge.

Why would knowledge lead to a painful outcome?

If one is knowledgeable enough, they would know that what they know is but a grain of salt in the sea; what they know, logically, leads them to the eventual point of conclusion that they can never know enough and will never know everything. The world is too large and an individual is simply too limited. To know more is to step out of the known and explore the unknown, and to explore then master the unknown is a lonesome journey, which would, in one way or another, leave a psychological impact on the seeker of knowledge.

The more knowledgeable one becomes, the more different they are from the rest, because they have a more profound understanding and so they see things differently, on deeper levels than the others. Yet, the general rule of thumbs of sociality and socialization is similarity; people bond with each other through likeness, and associate with what they can relate to. Thus, the more different an individual is, the lower their relatability is in relation to others.

In essence, differences always face the risk of exclusion, which is not illogical by nature, because unknown factors always pose a potential threat. Take for example the human body’s immunity, in order to maintain its own wellness and protect itself from disruptive factors, or pathogenic antigens, the immune system must identify the foreign trespassers and get rid of them via triggering B lymphocytes to make antibodies, which generally renders the body immune to the recognized pathogens in the future.

Elements of similar qualities and attributes, coupled with a stable nature, always tend to bind together to reach a more evolved state. Likewise, in society, how can different people work together? Teamwork only happens when all teammates truly understand one another, to accept differences. In this case, differences are still present, but how can teamwork still play out? Because the differences have been managed and there is a secured level of stability; people can only manage what they know and understand, not the unknown or things with an unfathomable/unpredictable nature.

Conclusion? Familiarity is key, for it is always easier to deal with what you have known through experience, which can be passed down, meaning less efforts and more secured results. On the contrary, dealing with something new, different and/or unstable is certainly synonymous with more efforts, more time spent to figure out its workings, and more risks.

Back to the discussion, the pursuit of knowledge is not always enjoyable; it is only so up to a certain point. Beyond this point, it can be bittersweet or it can be quite painful, because you know things that many do not, making it harder to find a truly empathetic, sharing partner. The more you know, the more different you are from the rest, and so the more difficult it is for others to relate to you, because most people around you are limited by their own experiences, making it hard for them to relate to your world, which is much more expansive.

“With great power, comes great responsibility” is never wrong to people with a strong sense of ethics, and as “Knowledge is power”, people with more knowledge, who are highly responsible, would sense the urge to contribute more of their values to the community. They will carry an extra weight of burden, and with every new piece of knowledge acquired, a new bit of responsibility adds up to that weight.

In the end, the devotion to knowledge demands a great price be paid, and not everyone is ready or willing to accept it and march on despite ever-growing challenges.