Every new thing you learn,

contributes something to how you think.

Thinking is not just about understanding,

but also about idea synthesis and new inventions.

It is tough to define how this works,

as it related to what a person already knows and how they think.

Something as small as pondering Henry Thoreau having a biscuit at this cabin,

can open up a gushing ocean of ideas, it will certainly expand it.

Henry lived by the northern point of the Appalachian Trail,

maybe that fact can get you driving down to Georgia.

You could begin section hiking large swaths of the trail,

journal, or audio recorder in hand.

You don't even need to read Walden,

just know that it is important to lead, to become a legend.

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More than learning and becoming more creative,

we should each hope to mark upcoming centuries with an inspirational legacy.

Just because we can't live a few hundred years,

does not mean our best ideas should end with us.

Your best ideas belong to the younger generations,

so that they need not start at the level you started.

It is not just about invention,

but also about creating things that solve problems that people actually have.

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We all to often avoid thinking about unanswerable questions,

in deed we hold them up as such and extinguish conversations.

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But there is no such thing as an unanswerable question,

look at Seth Shostak.

He makes a wonderful point when stating that aliens - creatures that we don't know exist,

will have an appendage that will be able to hold a soldering iron, to build that first radio antenna.

Even though this wonderful thought is as nebulous as it gets,

and belongs to a whole new level of unanswerable questions, it is a solid point.

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Richard Dawkins, answers another seemingly unanswerable question,

"What if you are wrong?".

Many young people contemplate what they would hold as true,

if they were born to a different family in a different country.

An that makes them question the things that they have accepted as facts,

to a young and rebellious mind, an unanswerable question is nonsense.

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The more we learn the more solution patterns we discover,

by inheriting from other thinkers.

The most powerful aspects of learning from beings like the ones I mention here,

is applying what you learn from them, by subtle analogy to questions, that they themselves have never encountered.

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Henry left it all behind,

he made room to think.

What if, instead of facing _your_ next grand challenge, head on,

you section hike or even through hike the Appalachian Trail, first.

You can easily imagine what a great mistake it will feel like on your first day,

and what a great triumph it will become the day you reach Mount Katahdin.

It could feel like being reborn as a Great Being,

or a tiny screaming baby.

But it will be a profound experience that will bring you enlightenment,

and wisdom.

Often times people learn that their challenge completely transformed,

and so did they.

And all it takes,

is knowing that Henry, went to the woods.

Taking to Wisdom, Meaning, and Enlightenment,

as part of life, as part of growing up, and part of facing challenges, is a powerful solution pattern.

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Richard Dawkins and Seth Shostak teach us that when something seems unanswerable,

we need to build a new bridge, and access it from a different perspective.

Not just think outside the box or view it in a different light,

as junior engineers are fond of doing.

But, teleporting ourselves across worlds,

watching the Milky Way from Andromeda, seeing Eath from Mars, or just seeing yourself in a different nation, culture, and family.

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There are no unanswerable questions,

though there are plenty of silly ones that warrant no answer and can only waste precious time.

And the more we learn, the better we become at recognizing what learning is like,

and what learning is not like.

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And we have to begin learning and advancing forward,

because the world is not meant to stand still.

A civilization that does not advance,

will stagnate in darkness and corruption, and confusion, and lies and manipulations and probably begin moving backwards as nations crumble.

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We are each meant for Greatness,

every one of us.

The road to get there is simple,

learn, become knowledgeable, become wise, and help the wold grow so that children don't have to start where you started, but at the height you reached.