The Evolution of Wisdom, from Town Squares to Digital Influence

Throughout history, we have sought guidance from those perceived as 'experts.' In ancient times, it was shamans and oracles; during the Renaissance, polymaths and philosophers. The 20th century saw the rise of self-help and motivational speakers. Today, we follow the digital influencers and online gurus looking for answers and action plans. Although this isn't a new phenomenon, we can see an evolution in communication and the widespread of the 'know-how.' This evolution has also given rise to collective wisdom, where knowledge and experience are increasingly shared and refined by communities rather than individuals.

The human desire for guidance and solutions is deeply ingrained in our organic make-up, as we seek ways to improve our lives and well-being. We're pattern-seeking individuals looking for shortcuts to succeed and fast ways to be happier, healthier, and wealthier. Between the 1950s and 1970s, a manifested boom in self-help literature and seminars marked the birth of the modern multi-million self-help industry. Charismatic speakers filled auditoriums, promising quick paths to wealth, self-fulfillment, and self-actualization. Today's online experts share similarities with their predecessors, using modern tools to connect and crowd-source concepts with a global audience, appealing to our most basic human desires.

So what's changed? Only the democratization of information.

Democratization has amplified the potential for a more inclusive understanding of complex issues. Digital platforms have made it possible for anyone to share their own life experiences and breakthroughs. While every life-changing event has its merits, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, keeping audiences bouncing around, experimenting with every trend and must-do until they can settle on the 'right fit'. At least for a while.

The growth mindset effect keeps us evolving faster than we can adapt, creating an internal sense of comparison where we lose sight of our inner wisdom and look for it outside of ourselves. For better or worse, we can say that this has created a very fluid economy, which also has the potential to open up new avenues not only of income but of education in our previously limited societies. This fluidity allows for the fast exchange of ideas, contributing to the ever-evolving common knowledge.

To add a layer of complexity, the economics of this new "expertise boom" has brought a powerful incentive to create content. Being an online expert or influencer is now a profitable career path, driving a constant stream of advice often simplifying complex concepts for easy consumption. This pressure to be always "on," producing digital material can sometimes compromise quantity over depth. However, it also allows for the rapid spread and testing of ideas, potentially fine-tuning our shared understanding of the world over time.

The continuous flow of "expertise" isn't without psychological effects. Many of us struggle with the very human feeling of FOMO, or fear of missing out, on life-changing information. We scroll through our feeds, saving posts and videos, convinced that the key to our success lies in the next swipe. This can lead to feelings of shortcoming when we inevitably become overwhelmed to keep up with all the advice, resulting in a peculiar form of decision paralysis - paralyzed not by a lack of options, but by an abundance of them.

Something Artificial this way comes.

Artificial Intelligence has the ability to generate advice-style content at a massive scale, personalize it to make it more appealing, and make it increasingly difficult to distinguish genuine expertise from artificially generated content. We're entering a phase where the line between human and machine-generated wisdom is blurring, raising profound questions about the nature of expertise itself. Especially when that "expertise" comes from us humans. Future generations are likely to ask which came first, humans or AI? The chicken and egg paradox.

So the new challenge is to develop the skills to consume the flood of information in a thoughtful and detached way. The ability to discern quality information, to look beyond superficial advice, and to seek depth, are the qualities that will serve us well in this age of digital communication. We can no longer take things at face value.

The popularization of online experts is neither good nor bad - it's an organic evolution of human interaction that reflects our need to give and receive. However, is it possible that the real value of expertise lies not in getting all the right answers, but in asking the right questions?

When advice is instant and accessible, the most valuable skill may be knowing how to think, not what to think. To keep in mind the timeless power of clear thinking, our understanding of our live experiences, and the wisdom that comes from them, rather than following the herd, which is not always in our best interest.

Perhaps the most profound expertise lies within our understanding that despite the external guides and diverse voices around us, we are each on a unique journey of growth and well-being. It's in discovering how life lessons work for us individually, and consciously choosing how we engage with the world around us, that we truly find meaning and purpose. We're all in this together, interactinng with the complexities of the modern age, one thoughtful step at a time.