Sail away my ship (2018)

1. Do not be haughty because of your knowledge, but take counsel with the unlearned man as well as with the learned, for no one has ever attained perfection of competence, and there is no craftsman who has acquired full mastery. Good advice is rarer than emeralds, but yet it may be found even among children* at the grindstones.

*this is often translated as “women” or “girls,” but those translations don’t really fit with my beliefs of Maat, and I’ve seen it translated as children so that’s what I’m sticking with lol

All of Ptahhotep’s Maxims are super long to me, which I’m not used to (I did research on the Grecian Delphic Maxims on another blog I run, and those are far shorter than Ptahhotep’s Maxims lol), so I find it best to kind of dissect them.

Do not be haughty because of your knowledge

To me, this simply means that you shouldn't be an asshole because you know things. Think mansplaining: assuming you're better than someone else because you have 'more knowledge' of the subject, whether or not that is true.

But take counsel with the unlearned man as well as with the learned

You should look to vary your friends and those you talk to, especially with regards to decision making. You should have friends in many socioeconomic and sociocultural standings so that you can get many, many different perspectives and opinions.

For no one has ever attained perfection of competence, and there is no craftsman who has acquired full mastery.

Nobody knows everything. There's always stuff to learn. There is always information to be given, found, and learned. Anyone who says that they're a complete master at something should be looked at with scrutiny and be questioned.

Good advice is rarer than emeralds, but yet it may be found even among children at the grindstones.

Good advice may not come often, but it can come from anywhere, so you shouldn't ignore every single piece of advice that you get from those you consider less experienced/less knowledgeable than you, because even the youngest and most inexperienced of people can have good advice to give.