"To know oneself is to know everything"--this is a thought extracted from the Bagahvad Gita. I agree. If you go to Musashi "Know one thing, know ten thousand things" or even Jerry Pournelle's "If you master anything, you have the key to mastering anything else" or the "it takes 10,000 hours to master a discipline" and take these comments as a cluster, it seems pretty clear that they all point in the same direction. Then in the Art of War we are warned that someone who knows neither his opponent or himself will lose every time. One who knows himself but not his opponent will win some and lose some. And one who knows both his opponent and himself will never lose.

I look at these things, and come to the conclusion that, indeed, our primary task is to know ourselves, and that when we do that, we open the doorway to all other knowledge. The road I've taken for this is the assumption that, until proven otherwise, everyone wants a relationship, a healthy fit body, and to make a good income doing something they enjoy. Three measurable standards that point to the person within. The only missteps I've made in my life have to do with lying to myself about something connected with one of these arenas. Frankly, most of the mistakes I've ever seen others make are connected here too.

It's clear that not everyone wants these things...but that really seems the way to bet.

-Steve Barnes, http://darkush.blogspot.com/2009/06/cheryl-and-i.html