Of all the things worth learning, Innocent puts one first: “Knowledge of self is the most notable knowledge I pursue. By knowing myself, I avoided dead dreams and a meaningless life.”

He earned that ranking the hard way. A career he wanted was swept away by life’s complications — not by any failure of his — and the loss revealed the passions underneath it, more clearly defined than before. All of them, it turned out, could be fulfilled on the path he walks now, one better than anything he’d imagined.

That’s what self-knowledge buys: there are many things you avoid just by knowing something, and the deadest dead-ends are the ones that were never really yours. Know yourself, and your dreams stop being guesses.