One of the hardest transitions we ask students to go through is from learning knowable things to learning infinite things.
The alphabet is knowable. The Bill of Rights, algebra, Spanish conjugations, stoichiometry. All knowable. Once you’ve spent sufficient time to master this knowledge, there’s really no further to go.
But most of your life will be spent on learning infinite things. Domains of knowledge that you can keep studying forever and not get to the end.
Just choosing examples in music: music literacy doesn’t end. The intricacies of tuning, performance practice, interpretive choice. You can spend a lifetime composing and still have things to learn with the next piece.
The same is true in any field – you will spend your life on questions that you can keep asking for as long as you have.
The challenge is that we teach students so well to operate in a “knowable” mindset, and it becomes a really big challenge to help them dance with the not knowing and transition into infinity.