As we are educated and educate ourselves, we all construct lattices of knowledge within our mind. This lattice is unique to each human and represents the totality of all their internalized knowledge, conscious and sub-conscious, devoid of meaning and infused with meaning. Whenever we obtain new data regardless of the source, this affects the total structure of the lattice, yet at the same time this lattice is what enables us to interpret, understand and then internalize or reject the new data. Such a framework is exemplified in construction whenever someone does academic research, and conducts a literature study. The framework they construct however, is much more tidy than the one within our minds. After all, the academic researcher in the field of particle physics will not have his meticulously constructed framework include memories from childhood, or events where he observed the concepts in practice (unless part of an experiment).

Exemplified, whenever I read a text dealing with economics, my framework is influenced by the fact that the first book I ever read on economics was Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations", as this is the foundation for my framework on economics. If I had read Marx initially my framework would be different as I would have used knowledge I gained from Marx to interpret Smith, not the other way around. This exact effect is why I've made an effort over the past 15 years to seek out the "first source" within those fields of knowledge on which I endeavor to educate myself. For instance, when I decided to learn philosophy, I began with the Greeks, for most of modern philosophy rests on Greek foundations.

 *"Bernard of Chartres used to say that we [the Moderns] are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants [the Ancients], and thus we are able to see more and farther than the latter. And this is not at all because of the acuteness of our sight or the stature of our body, but because we are carried aloft and elevated by the magnitude of the giants."* Isaac Newton

I always enjoyed that Newton quote, however it's important to know on which giant's shoulders you stand, the mind that made the discovery or a different man, for you can get a sense of a man's blind-spots, preferred frameworks, concepts, ideas and rational mind, however you are dependent on identifying the man and develop a familiarity with him. Systems of knowledge are constantly adjusting feedback mechanisms, where what we think tends to change but how we think has a more static quality to it. Many of the opinions, views and conclusions I've reached in the past 5 years are different from the ones I held and made in the 5 years preceding them, as it should be, however how my mind works has not changed notably.

This stems from the fact that one is constantly taking in information that is added to the framework, whether this is from reading, videos, or merely making your own observations, the framework expands, changes, adjusts and adapts. However, while the mind that analyzes the framework is also malleable, I would argue that it is less so unless conscious effort is made in order to alter it. If one is prone to impulsive decisions, one can train to become less impulsive, if one is prone to over-analyzing, one can train to become more fluid.

Read the full essay here:http://wp.me/p78k8O-Rr