I have always read voraciously, mostly nonfiction, and I have learned multiple trades and practices through self-study over the years. I have a whole wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Last week, I had this very strong urge to purge it, and I have been giving away paniers and paniers of books all week (by bike, of course). Since this is a process that continues almost every day, I have experienced it on several existential levels that I’ll share because I suspect that some of them might resonate with you. We all feel Pluto’s energy at some level.
Knowledge
Here’s a quick story about “knowledge” that I bet you have experienced at some level. When I was consulting in the corporate world, one of my areas of expertise was knowledge management. As this was mid-nineties, digitizing, cataloguing, and promoting papers, methodologies, frameworks, formulas, plans, strategies, and the like was big business at the global consultancies where I worked. From what I’ve seen in multiple organizations since then, the concept of knowledge management is sound, but in practice, it has fallen short of delivering on its promise.
The problem is that the same digitization that enables organizations to produce, share, find, and use digital artifacts drives their obsolescence, so their usefulness is very short-lived. And situations are so unique that one much rework or adapt the artifact considerably.
Pluto and Knowledge
At a practical level, knowledge presupposes certain contexts and conditions in order for its artifacts to be applicable and practical (reusable). For most of human history, context and conditions changed much more slowly than they do today. I’m sure you have heard many pundits saying that the digital world speeds up change. However, humans’ creation of their digital world is a context itself, but that is another post.
Artificial “intelligence” is one of the latest exponents of digitization, and there are increasing signs that it is accelerating climate change. If the power goes off, digitization collapses, kayoed. I do not expect this to happen, but I only mention it to point out how fragile and artificial it is from a natural perspective.
As I looked at the familiar dog-eared titles in my library, I realized that I would never use them again. Business strategy, enterprise architecture, IT strategy, economics, customer experience, management consulting, all that Harvard, all that (Silicon) Valley. Yes, part of this is an age thing; I am no longer interested in business consulting, but that remains a vibrant business that is pursued by other people, although the knowledge is changing drastically.
I also discovered that most of my library had insufficient value to be interesting to used bookstores, so I am donating books to the vast network of community libraries that adorn the streets of Rogers Park and Evanston. The ultimate release to the universe.
However, I am probably also dialing into something I feel and write about often here: I can’t escape the feeling, as much as my ego would like to escape it, that we are on the cusp of change that will make the past changes pale in comparison.
Knowledge and Creativity
I learned from an early age to survive constantly changing environments (seven schools in five states and two countries by high school graduation) by recreating my “world,” my reputation, friends, teacher relationships, geographical maps, cultural adaptations. These were usually so different that I had to use my creativity more than any specific knowledge to adapt.
On the philosophical, spiritual level, Krishnamurti asserts that knowledge is dead because it’s based on the past. Being fully present is possible only when one empties one’s mind. Of course, at the practical level, we thrive by reusing things that have worked for us before, but this usually requires adapting them to new situations, sometimes extensively.
My New Library
I don’t know what my new library will look like because the things I need to study and learn haven’t emerged yet. The main thing is to create space for them, so I am creating a vacuum.
I am also practicing collective ownership when possible, so the lion’s share of my literature and classics and history I can access in libraries when needed, so I don’t need my own copies. I am also practicing minimalism in terms of material things of all kinds. I suspect that I’ll be on the move; the key adaptation in rapidly changing conditions is flexibility and quick adaptation. Let go of the past.
I am experiencing this process as sobering and humbling as well as exciting. This knowledge was worth hundreds of dollars per hour in consulting fees; I helped clients make massive changes in their organizations with it. With Pluto’s entry into Aquarius, I suspect that hightech, Valley companies, will be disrupted as will social organizations (nonprofits) and models of change. Unconventional methods will prevail while conventional “nonprofit” and social change methods will probably be confronted with changing drastically.
The main thing for me is letting go of “knowledge” that may have sentimental value but isn’t applicable in the present. I am letting it go.
A Dark Side, A Light Side
I don’t experience myself as a macabre person, but I found that grounding myself in my death was very uplifting and liberating. I know that I can take nothing material with me when I die. Since the 4th is my dominant house, making changes to how I have built my 4th house is a profound process, so it feels like a kind of death.
I mention this because all deep change, since it rattles the Reptilian brain, feels like a death. What if.. death were a release, what if it’s a new level of freedom? We can’t take things with us, so we can let them go now if we can’t imagine using them before we die. Other people may use them and create with them, so let them go.
Practiced Ignorance 