Have you ever had that feeling of guilt looking at your piles of unread books or papers that you are supposed to read but have been sitting there for years on end?
If yes, you are like me and probably many others who like to learn and grow in life.
There is a particularly useful concept that had helped me deal with this issue. It is called Antilibrary, coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - the renown author of Black Swan and Antifragile.
Antilibrary is the collection of unread book that reminds us of all thing out there that we have zero knowledge of.
The existence of such a reminder is critical to anybody whose core values are placed on lifelong learning and personal growth.
An antilibrary makes you feel humbled by the vast collective human knowledge. When you are unassuming about your own contribution, you have to clearly and explicitly convince yourself where you best contribute and where you should step down and let others do their parts. Knowing when to differentiate and when to integrate is crucial to a life of flow and joy.
When you are unassuming, you become more aware of the internal environment of your own thoughts and emotions. When you are aware of your own psychology, you have power over it. They are no longer lurking in you subconsciousness and control your reactions.
You are also more well aware of your external environment: what others say to you verbally and nonverbally, what special points of view do they bring to the table. You come to appreciate people more when you are unassuming of what you have already known.
The antilibrary sits there to make you a better human and a better learner of life.
Therefore, accept that you might feel overwhelmed looking at your piles of unread materials. Then, put these unread materials into your antilibrary and put what you have known well into use. When you run out of ideas to execute on, you could always come back to your antilibrary. This way, you avoid the trap of being in constant fear of missing out in life. Because you are aware of where you stand in the realm of human knowledge.