“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” — Carl Jung
Today, after work, I was riding the train to the park and ride that I abandoned my car at for the day. I’ve been feeling low in energy for various reasons, so instead of an audiobook or writing, I decided to watch YouTube videos.
I’ve recently been watching a whole bunch of stuff on Design Thinking, and Systems Thinking, and psychology, and all that stuff. One of the videos that hit my queue was something on Carl Jung, and synchronicity.
I’ve known this concept for a while now, but it’s interesting to hear other peoples takes and thoughts on the concepts.
I was watching this with headphones on, as people tend to do on public transit, so nothing was “listening” to me. No apps were “listening” to me. If any of them were then the iOS recording indicator would be on.
There was no microphone usage.
I finish the video, then decided to fuck around on Facebook. And by fuck around, I mean go meme shopping and getting popcorn dopamine hits.
Shortly after I start scrolling there’s a philosophy quote that scrolls by.
From Carl Jung. lol.
The quote is:
“If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.”
I’ve never seen, nor heard, that quote. But, it is something I’ve intuitively discovered as I’ve learned more and more about whatever.
Because the more I’ve been learning about stuff outside of the realm of my current social circles, the more challenging it has been to connect with people when I share what I’m learning, thinking, or working through.
While there is enthusiasm for my enthusiasm, as soon as I start digging into any sort of technical details most folks’ eyes just kind of glaze over, so I change the subject.
Which sucks. It sucks not being able to talk about what’s on your mind.
This guy commented on the post and said something along the lines of, “it’s not what you know, it’s what you believe about yourself.”
Which I believe is somewhat accurate, because one of the mantras I’ve had for a while now is, “You are only as lonely as you allow yourself to be.”
Which can be a bitter pill to swallow when you’re feeling lonely. I also just searched for it on Google - my little mantra - and apparently not that many people have written that as of 2024-07-31.
There wasn’t just that guy though. There were a lot of people throwing in their 2 cents as well. And every single one wasn’t quite grokking what Jung actually meant.
In my heart of hearts I knew what that quote meant. I knew that it meant that the more you learn, the more challenging it is to connect with people that are interested in the same stuff.
So, I searched for more knowledge nuggets provided by Carl, and I found:
“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”
Bingo.
I fucking knew it.
It had nothing to do with how smart you are. It has everything to do with not being able to connect with people within the context of your interests. Your passions. The knowledge that lights you up.
Not being able to share what’s on my mind with folks who are actually interested in it - who actually pay attention and engage - feels kind of isolating.
And it sucks. It is a resolvable situation though, because you are only as lonely as you allow yourself to be.
Which means I need to find new people, and make new friends, that have common interests, within common subjects, that have common values.
This requires energy. It requires me to get off my ass, meet people, engage, and keep engaging so that the relationship grows.
So. Much. Energy.
Plus I need to step out of my comfort zone, over and over and over again, in order to find those folks that I can connect with. The folks that will help me - or join me - in designing something new and novel.
Something that matters. Rather than something that is thrown away.
Synchronicity around the man who coined the term. What an interesting day… well… at least what an interesting commute.