“A degree on a wall means you’re educated as much as shoes on your A feet mean you're walking. It's a start, but hardly sufficient. Otherwise, how could so many "educated" people make unreasonable decisions? Or miss so many obvious things? Partly it's because they forget that they ought to focus only on that which lies within their power to control. A surviving fragment from the philosopher Heraclitus expresses that reality:
"Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand
that night and day are one."
Just as you can walk plenty well without shoes, you don't need to step into a classroom to understand the basic, fundamental reality of nature and of our proper role in it. Begin with awareness and reflection. Not just once, but every single second of every single day.” - Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic
"What is it then to be properly educated? It is learning to apply our natural preconceptions to the right things according to Nature, and beyond that to separate the things that lie within our power from those that don't." —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.22.9-10
As the old saying goes, A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This common phrase is a slight misquotation from Alexander Pope’s 1774 quote, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
Anyone who has worked a corporate job and has witnessed a new college graduate’s first few months in the work-world can attest to the truth of this quote. At the company I used to work for we had a program called Management Services and this department existed solely to groom recent Ivy League college grads for supervisory and managerial positions.
These people would be strategically placed within a series of different departments for a few months at a time to learn how the business worked. Often, from the very first day, these fresh college grads had an air of superiority, felt they knew more than people with decades worth of experience, and were eager to prove their worth to their corporate bosses who lavished them with praise. These young people were convinced they would solve every problem and inefficiency in whatever department they were placed in a mere matter of months. Some of them did offer suggestions to make things better but more often, at the end of those few months these fresh-faced young people came away with little more than some hard lessons in how the real world works.
The truth is senior management worked to instill a false belief of superiority in them as a means of control—as a way to create a future loyal middle manager in the company who would always side with the decisions and values of senior management.
Not that any amount of education is necessarily a bad thing, rather it’s the false confidence that many of those people with a little education and not much life-experience tend to have. This false confidence misleads them into believing they’re more learned, expert, and wise than they really are.
For education to truly be beneficial it must be coupled with real world life-experience. This takes time and the willingness to commit to a lifetime of continuous learning. The Japanese have a wonderful philosophy of continuous improvement in regard to business called Kaizen. But Kaizen can be applied to our personal lives as well.
The truth is none of us will ever be perfect, but we can strive to become better. For that continuous improvement to occur we must first reject the pompous notion that we've already learned everything there is to know. If we want to experience true success in life it’s necessary to commit to lifelong learning. We'll never be omniscient in our current form and this brings a strange sort of comfort to me.
Each morning of this next week I urge you to ask yourself:
How Can I Deepen My Knowledge Today?
Be well, make the most of this day. Thank you for reading!
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Ahhh, yes, @ericvancewalton, as a Silver Blogger, I have a distinct memory of what your post brings to mind. There was a period of what I will refer to as a fad when companies decided the answer to all of their problems was hiring MBAs. I wonder if a book has ever been written purporting to anything close to quantitatively measuring and reporting on how that played out?
We can assume it did not go all that well, as I think this concept died a well-deserved death a long time ago.
Education out of a book has very little value when not reinforced with hands-on experience which brings whatever knowledge we think we might have obtained to life. In the real world. I do like the idea of being a life-long learner with a continuous improvement mindset.
Better still? In my view, the desire to grow wiser. Intelligence and wisdom are not the same. Arguably the former even works against obtaining the latter, as humility is required. The opposite of what your post cites of your experience with these recent college grads, as they were arrogant and condescending, as a result of their education.
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I was working the job I referenced above during the peak years of college degree-mania. Lol From what I hear from others still in the trenches corporations are beginning to soften a bit and value real-world experience more seriously.
Better still? In my view, the desire to grow wiser. Intelligence and wisdom are not the same. Arguably the former even works against obtaining the latter, as humility is required. The opposite of what your post cites of your experience with these recent college grads, as they were arrogant and condescending, as a result of their education.
This is very true!
I've started meditating again Eric! And feel much better for it.
As for the college grads who are given senior positions despite knowing nothing; the same happens here. They have such attitude and really are mere puppets!
Thanks wonderful Lizelle! I'm so happy to hear that.
I always dreaded when one of them were assigned to our department. A few ended up making some good contributions but a majority of them used up vital training resources only to have them leave a few months later. Rarely would they mix with the others in the department for lunches, breaks, or personal conversations.
So many people think a degree equals wisdom, but real life experience humbles you fast. The part about fresh grads thinking they know everything, seen it so many times. Lifelong learning is the real flex
You can say that again. College can, in no way, prepare you for the level of corporate f*ckery experienced in the real world. ; )
hahaha corporate fuckery, FACTS
I'm a big believer in on the job experience. I would guess the amount of stuff I learned in my degree that I use on a daily basis is maybe 10% The other 90% is stuff I learned from years on the job or doing research and learning myself in my spare time. It's a broken system at the university level for many careers.
Me too. Except for a few cases I much preferred to work with and train people who had worked their way up. Most employees had degrees but management services employees were all from very elite colleges. You could clearly see there was an established corporate class system in place and glass ceilings for a majority of people who didn't fit the mold. I'm glad that there's less of an emphasis being placed on degrees now.
I think the military is kind of like that too. You see it in the form of officers who went to schools versus officers who worked their way up the ranks. There just seems to be a bit more respect.
Exactly, ROTC. They enter active duty as mid-ranking officers.
Yep, that's what I was thinking of.
There is so much power in meditation. The more we meditate, the more it exposed our brain to more deeper knowledge
Indeed, knowledge without practice almost has no value.
Very true!
#hive #posh
I agree with you 100%! One of the first things I realized after graduating is that theory is one thing and practice is another. At university you are given a set of knowledge and only with the years you acquire the experience to be able to apply it. I remember that in my first years of work, even now, I surrounded myself with colleagues with more experience to guide me: a kind of tutors to whom I turned to for advice. It's a false idea to believe that we know everything. It's so great to learn something new every day. It not only stimulates our brain, but also our passion for life. A hug, my friend