9 - The Madness of Being Self-Made, Part 1

B-RAD with Brad Toews

Are you familiar with metadata? Metadata sounds high-tech or sciency, but it's simply data that gives information about other data. For example, when you listen to an audio recording of the podcast you're listening to an MP3 file. On that file is metadata about this particular episode. The show title, copyright, etc. encoded right in the file you're listening to.

The metadata is the background and foundational information of the file's data. Kind of like the true identity of the file.

Metadata gives information about something's existence.

Do humans have metadata?

What is the essence of our "human" being? What does it mean to be me? What does it mean to be here?

Some people try to create their own metadata. They are the self-made man, the self-made woman. They are continually working towards achieving, striving, and accomplishing to give meaning to their existence, to define who they are.

They pursue self-development to make an identity.

But is it possible that we can use self-discovery to find our identity?

What if, instead of defining the meaning of our life and existence with our efforts, we are endowed with meaning already? Instead of creating self we find self.

Something is embedded, encoded in you. The metadata of your being.

Join me in this episode as I talk about finding forgotten treasure on hard drives (not as boring as it sounds), ask all the important existential questions, and tease apart the difference between developing an identity and discovering our identity.

In-depth shownotes, images, links and other resources at Brad Toews.