The blank slate theory
The blank slate theory (Latin: Tabula Rasa) “is the idea that we come into the world without any built-in knowledge, and that everything we know comes later through experience.”
When I think about this, I imagine those first moments after birth. Apart from the sound of our mother’s heartbeat and a few muffled voices, everything is new. Light, sounds, smells, sensations—none of it connects to anything familiar. No wonder we don’t remember those early years; there was nothing in our minds for those moments to hold on to.
I think about this whenever I’m trying to learn something completely new. It has the same feeling: nothing is familiar, nothing clicks, nothing stays. I remember feeling like this when I tried to understand blockchains and cryptotechnology. Without any foundation, everything felt disconnected. I had to go back to first principles, build a basic layer of understanding, and only then did the rest of it start to make sense.
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A sticker I kept from 2008 turned out to be relevant from this perspective.