The Paradox of knowledge
Toufic Hawly
Designing and Building your projects at global trade shows with FeroniaLab and planting a tree for every 9sqm built with Ecotree
I came across some posts on Linkedin today about books, podcasts, the importance of Learning and how the average CEO reads 50 books a year. The misunderstanding of this notion is too great not to pause and think for a second.
Let's take music in parallel for the illustration. Listening to pieces on a daily basis will certainly improve your sense of rhythm and melody. You'll be able to follow a beat. This, however, does not turn you into a musician. Picking up an instrument, writing songs that are in tune, testing getting feedback from an audience and above all the discipline to repeat and adjust no matter how painful it gets is more likely to make you a musician.
Bring that back to business. Reading, watching videos and listening to podcasts will most certainly provide you with good material for a meaningful conversation. It will also give you a broad knowledge of the concepts you read about, but it will certainly not turn you into the expert you aspire to be. You're no different than a person enjoying a piece of music.
Applying, testing, failing, arguing, following up, working, testing again, working again and having the humility and discipline to persevere on those concepts is what will get you the results.
Bottom line, no pain no gain. If you are not facing challenges, REAL challenges and dealing with them, you're certainly not growing and you're most likely becoming soft.
This is the Paradox of Knowledge : You read, and listen there for you assume you're learning and mastering. Knowledge without actions and results is pointless and extra mobilized brain power for nothing. Evolution kicked in when Humans started putting action against the knowledge they acquired.
Management Analyst @ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission | Certification in Automated Logistics/material accounting/ Accounting
5 年Well said sir !!! I truly appreciate your commentary
Data Science & UX Research
5 年I think the point is this: merely consuming information is necessary but not sufficient for mastery. That said, I think your article misses the necessary part of the equation.
I do think that reading can inform both. That is what i gleaned from the book, (1983) The Reflective Practitioner, by Donald Schon. His main point, though, is not that, but rather he argues that learning and mastery comes from reflection, a point i would not have known had i not read the book (or, at the least, heard about it, in my college coursework). Nevertheless, i think your point is a great one, and fully consistent with Schon.?