I spent all last week (okay, only 4 days but it seemed like more so I've given myself permission to refer to it as all last week) at a workshop on typology. After much thought, I buy Jung's typology model...although if you have some words of wisdom you'd like to share, by all means do so. I wasn't as sure about Jung's claim that we're born with a preferred type. But after watching 9 month old babies clearly express type during a research project, I can't reject that idea. And since these subjects have been followed for many years and still display the same type preference, it seems as if Jung was also right when he said we couldn't alter our preferred type, although we may get more adept at using all the functions. But I'm off track.
My biggest challenge all week was coming face to face with conscious incompetency - the realization, every day, that there's so much I don't know. I've also got to come to grips with the fact that I'm not gonna be able to "catch up" - ever. According to Bowker - the world's leading provider of bibliographic information - the US published 172,000 new titles in 2005. Yeah, you read that right - 172,000 new books hit the street...in one year! I try to browse through a couple of books a week, but even at that rate, I'm not making much of a dent. I know what you're thinking - how many of those 172,000 tomes are even worth looking at? Since I can only get to about a hundred a year, I don't know. But I have a niggling feeling I'm missing one or two that might be life changing. If you've read one, let me know. The thought of so much knowledge alluding me makes me uncomfortable. But my firm belief in lifelong learning keeps me moving forward...all the while knowing that I will forever live in a world of "conscious incompentency".
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