Ideas, and knowledge.
in imagination, knowledge, theory on Sunday, July 27, 2008
Imagination is more important than knowledge. - Albert EinsteinWe are put into schools, whether they are schools for maths, language, martial art, dance, or any other skill, to learn those skills. Unfortunately, most students do not know how to be geniuses. They religiously follow teachings to arrive at measurable answers. The right numbers, the right words, the right moves, executed in order, in the right quantity, measured as right in as many ways as possible.
This is foolish. And not because the answers are wrong.
Take martial art. Many traditional schools of martial art show you "forms". Some masters tell you great secrets of martial art with which to destroy your enemies, strengthen your body against blades, find inner peace, among other incredible things. Not much of what they tell you is untrue.
But let's pretend for a moment that your martial arts master really is the greatest master in the world, even the universe! Let's pretend he can crush and create mountains...no, planets! With his will he can shape the future for entire civilisations as he pleases, his power his so great. Of course you would want to follow him and be able to do as he does. And suppose he does teach you everything he knows. And you copy it all, and you copy it perfectly. But it won't work for you. Because in your haste, you failed to notice that your master is actually a 100ft super alien. With tentacles.
You are not Einstein, Bruce Lee, Frank Sinatra, Churchill, Tiger Woods or any other legend who has gone before. You are you, and you have to find your own way. If you learn best from doing and gain little from cramming, a speed read course is not much good to you even if you speed read perfectly. If you're allergic to nuts, an amazing super diet that includes nuts is no good for you no matter how healthy it is.
And what does this have to do with what Einstein said?
What matters more than both the answer and the method, is the idea. Bruce Lee explained it well:
"Don't think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't focus on the finger or you'll miss all that heavenly glory."Not only is arriving at the right answer not useful, but using the right method is also of no use without the intended idea. An idea, being a manifestation of some person's creativity, intuition, belief, imagination. The imaginative idea being more important than the knowledgeable answer which may carry it.
So what use is there for knowledge? This question is far too large for the scope of this post, but for now, I believe the biggest use of knowledge is to create new ideas, from which we create knowledge, and so forth. For instance, the knowledge of the existence of chocolate and peanut butter could lead to the idea of dessert no-one has tasted before. The knowledge that apples fall from trees could lead to the idea of gravitation. The knowledge that you've seen something huge in the water could lead to the idea of a sea beast to be popularised in fiction for centuries to come.
Acquire knowledge not just for the sake of its ideas, but also for your imagination - those ideas you are yet to have.
Things I love knowing - How to mash, not choose
in things I love knowing on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
As someone who once was on the road to becoming a hardcore, even professional gamer, I saw many similarities between uni life and computer games. Most people simply dive into computer games without thinking a whole lot, and just have fun while performing at a mediocre level, and the same can be said for uni. Uni is great fun, you meet lots of young, gorgeous and intelligent people who like the same things you do, and come out with a degree to boot.
But for hardcore gamers, a game is a discipline. They learn to understand the game, the rules, the mechanics, and practice them diligently so that they come out ahead of other people playing the same game. For me, uni has many similarities. Plenty of high scoring uni students do well because they've learned how to learn.
And I then compared it to a race. Cars, running, horseriding, whatever. How it was important in a race to find a perfect line, or a perfect pace, to make the absolute most of the muscle or horsepower you had to bear to get ahead of the other racers.
Instead of arguing with myself which of the two uni was more like, I decided to simply combine the two. Uni for me right now, is like a Racing Game. (More on that in future posts ;) )
How is this useful? For some decision making, this has proven to be very valuable to me. I recently pondered what career I would most love to do in the future. I laid out the things that I could never get bored doing, the things I would stay up late for, get up early for and risk ACT public transport for. This came down to: learning how to use computers to do everything, and teaching. Up until now, I thought that I would be in a career in IT, writing or designing software for some big firm making big money. And this idea is still compelling. But I also love teaching. Kids and adults alike, I love to be loved for my skills in teaching people to be their best in anything.
So instead of deciding between a career in IT or teaching, I decided to mash them together. I'd like to teach IT. And I feel really really good.
Let it be stressed that mashing is not the same as doing both things individually! I would most definitely not advocate deciding between a new TV or a new sound system, and just buying both. I simply advise that when an argument comes along or a decision needs to be made, think about how both sides can be mashed together in addition to thinking about each exclusively.
