← The Dao De Jing
Chapter 71
To Know That You Do Not Know
知不知
The Text
知不知，尚矣；不知知，病也。圣人不病，以其病病。夫唯病病，是以不病。
To know that you do not know — highest. To not know and yet think you know — disease. Only when one is sick of the sickness does one cease to be sick. The sage is not sick because he is sick of the sickness; that is why he is not sick.
Reading it
The epistemics chapter, in four sentences. The disease is not ignorance — it is ignorance with the symptom erased. Being sick of the sickness is the treatment: discomfort at one’s own false certainty is the only reliable signal left.
四句话的认识论。病不是无知——是症状被抹除的无知。「病病」是治疗：对自己虚假确信的不适，是唯一还可靠的信号。
Practice for the week
Pick one thing you are certain about professionally. Write down what would prove you wrong. Check whether you actually know that.
挑一件你在职业上确信的事。写下什么能证明你错了。核对你是否真知道。