The first step to self-knowledge is rejection of the familiar.
"Stay hungry, stay foolish" - Steve Jobs.
While in this fast-paced world, where people commonly take the natural phenomena around us such as the rising and setting of the sun, changing of seasons and other occurrences for granted, the majority of progress made by humanity is by adopting a questioning attitude and not settling for what appears to be. Steve Jobs has aptly remarked that to achieve any form of success in any field whether it be science or sport, one must always be willing to learn. It is commonly said that once we stop learning, we start dying and the first step to self-knowledge truly begins with the rejection of the familiar. Hence, it is certainly true that we can only begin our process of acquiring knowledge treading through uncharted waters and by rejecting the unfamiliar.
Throughout history, there have been several instances where progress can only by questioning the assumed theories. For example, it was commonly believed in the 16th century, that the earth was at the centre of the universe and the sun went around the earth every once in a year. Galileo Galilei, a renowned astronomer was not willing to accept the familiar knowledge even though that specious fact was widely believed around Europe. Thus, by taking the first step to understanding the true workings of the universe around us, Galileo rejected the accepted notion and proved through hard work and perseverance, that the earth was not at the centre of the universe and this is now the truth. Hence, we can see that to understand the world around us, one must be willing to have an open mind to all the possibilities.
Another striking example that accurately proves to us that we need to reject the familiar to progress towards knowledge, is the example of the pioneering Wright Brothers. In the early 19th century, it was widely believed that no human could build a machine that flies. The Wright brother had a vision and they wanted to check for themselves. They soon built a prototype which was actually able to fly and the rest is now history. We now live in an age of aeroplanes and getting from one part of the world to another is just an easy task.
The entire premise of science is based on rejecting the familiar and trying to find out what could be the actual reasons behind something. Even James and Watson Crick, the scientists behind the discovery of the DNA, the ingredient of life, were advent believers of the above. They could not believe that there was some supreme power that created and was responsible for all life. Hence, this attitude was highly beneficial and now modern science is based on the above premise.
On the other hand, it may be definitely possible that always questioning the accepted notions might not lead to any kind of progress towards knowledge. Sometimes one may expend huge amounts of money and time to test the familiar knowledge which might lead futile. Therefore, while having a questioning attitude to the different phenomena around us, one should also be reasonable to understand that in certain cases, this shall just impede progress. But again, as illustrated above, in order to grow and learn, we need to be able to expect the unexpected and be willing to take calculated risks. Had the Wright brother resigned after listening to the repeated notions that no human can build a vehicle capable of flight, and not rejected it, it may be plausible that we would not have had aeroplanes which are ubiquitous now.
In conclusion, wherever we need to make progress and face challenges, often questioning the familiar shall bring us great possibilities to learn and grow. We must have the will to embrace the unfamiliar and believe an trust for ourselves, for that is the only path for self-knowledge.
- The first step to self-knowledge is rejection of the familiar. 58
- Prompt: “The autonomy of any country is based on the strength of its borders; if the number of illegal immigrants entering a country cannot be checked, both its economy and national identity are endangered. Because illegal immigrants pose such threats, 49
- The following appeared as part of an article in a Dillton newspaper."In an effort to bring new jobs to Dillton and stimulate the city's flagging economy, Dillton's city council voted last year to lower the city's corporate tax rate by 15 percent; at the s 29
- As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. 66
- A movie producer sent the following memo to the head of the movie studio.“We need to increase the funding for the movie Working Title by 10% in order to ensure a quality product. As you know, we are working with a first-time director, whose only previou 66
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 38, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
'Stay hungry, stay foolish' - Steve Jobs. While in this fast-pace...
^^
Line 5, column 503, Rule ID: NOUN_AROUND_IT[1]
Message: Consider using 'the surrounding universe'?
Suggestion: the surrounding universe
...p to understanding the true workings of the universe around us, Galileo rejected the accepted notion a...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 14, column 216, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
...l to embrace the unfamiliar and believe an trust for ourselves, for that is the on...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, hence, if, may, so, therefore, thus, while, for example, in conclusion, kind of, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 33.0 19.5258426966 169% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.4196629213 185% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 14.8657303371 168% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 11.3162921348 203% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 52.0 33.0505617978 157% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 84.0 58.6224719101 143% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 12.9106741573 39% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3138.0 2235.4752809 140% => OK
No of words: 641.0 442.535393258 145% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.89547581903 5.05705443957 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.0316973083 4.55969084622 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62934070009 2.79657885939 94% => OK
Unique words: 308.0 215.323595506 143% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.480499219969 0.4932671777 97% => OK
syllable_count: 968.4 704.065955056 138% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59117977528 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 17.0 6.24550561798 272% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 4.99550561798 120% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.38483146067 137% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 20.2370786517 128% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 23.0359550562 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.4602482463 60.3974514979 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.692307692 118.986275619 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.6538461538 23.4991977007 105% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.19230769231 5.21951772744 99% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 4.97078651685 141% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 7.80617977528 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 10.2758426966 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.177604961466 0.243740707755 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0481270295401 0.0831039109588 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0887428866268 0.0758088955206 117% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0804934315079 0.150359130593 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0652955823557 0.0667264976115 98% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.1392134831 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.8420337079 114% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.1743820225 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.44 12.1639044944 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.38706741573 97% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 100.480337079 133% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 11.8971910112 118% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.2143820225 103% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.