Some thoughts on the journey of knowledge

Most people view the journey of learning and attaining knowledge as climbing a mountain where you put in years of effort to reach the peak. I would have agreed with that analogy up until a few years ago.
Now I hold the viewpoint that it is like climbing an infinite staircase in a fog. You see the immediate future but problems far ahead of you aren’t visible. You see the steps immediately behind you but the difficulty of problems long past you, you take for granted. In the beginning of your journey you wondered how much further the end is, but as you learn more you realize the true nature of this journey; there is no end. Often when people are hit by this realization, that how little they know and how much there is that is unknown. They tend to get something akin to existential dread. They stop learning and close their minds. I for one think it’s immoral to stop there. By the very virtue of being so far ahead of everyone else on this infinite staircase you are humanity’s best hope of understanding the universe and If you are humanity’s best hope then you owe it to everyone to strive in that effort and open up new and exciting frontiers that may benefit everyone.
There is no end, but there is success to be had in giving another person a boost so that they may reach a further point than you could have. I think today’s educational systems are missing this overview in their efforts. Hopefully we can help instill it again by taking advantage of modern technologies and social media.