When the student is ready, the guru appears

Life goes in cycles (sort of).
So humans come and go, turn by turn.
What each turn knows is different, each in its own way.
So generations may differ in what each
knows or does not know.
At one point or another,
a generation or an individual knows some things and not others.
That is why no one knows everything.

Everyone who is willing can learn something new every day,
adding to their knowledge.
As each one adds to their knowledge,
that adds to the total of a generation's knowledge bank.

Now here's the sticky part:
increasing the knowledge of a large cross-section of a generation
requires measures that some might consider a little extreme.
That sometimes results in authoritarian social frameworks,
set up to speed up the delivery of knowledge.
Since humans are wired to resist authoritarian influence,
not everyone gets on the learning train.
Over time, generational cycles intertwine,
creating a mass of concrete knowledge that is available to anyone.

The other sticky point is that this concrete knowledge
is bigger than any one human brain can hold.
So what to do?
Since humans are adaptive (as almost all created things are),
each one chips away at it as they see fit.
In other words, they use bits and pieces of it as needed.
It could also be just for fun.

Why would I want to know the chemical properties of a rock
if I don't even know the rock exists?
And even if I did, why would I want to know
if I have no use for it?
Or why would I study the breeding habits of a bush rat
if all I do is hunt and kill it?
If I learn the ways of the bush rat, maybe I want to help preserve it.
Why would I want to preserve it?
Is it my business whether the bush rat breeds or not?
These are questions that already have answers.
Some of the answers are well documented, too.

The nagging problem for a single human being
is the inability to know, alone, all there is to know.
I think a lot of wise people come to that realization at some point.
A famous saying goes: "When the student is ready, the guru will appear."

Wish I could be more helpful.

— Wanaku Verdzekov