Garbage in, garbage out

When you throw things away, they come back to haunt you, remarked the director of a garbage centre in Chicago, talking to a reporter doing a story on waste. Reduce, reuse, recycle, is what experts advise, when it comes to waste management. First, when you reduce the quantity of waste generated, half the battle is won. So, too, when it comes to the human mind.

Filter all the information you are exposed to and consume only that is of any value. When we gorge on all that comes our way indiscriminately, the mind gets cluttered with a lot of garbage, and then we have to sort that garbage and throw out the waste. Instead, why not use the intellect and consume only what is necessary?

Becoming an information glutton is as bad as overeating, and falling sick. All information is not knowledge but all knowledge helps one become wise. Information consists of all kinds of data, facts, happenings, events and descriptions. But knowledge is all about that comes not just from information, books and education; knowledge comes mainly from experience and learning. All information may not give knowledge but all knowledge is information that leads to wisdom.

In computer science lingo, ‘garbage in, garbage out’ indicates that whatever you feed into the computer, is what you will get out of it. Our brain, too, functions like a computer. Whatever you feed your brain and mind, is what you will get out of it.