What you don’t know will be used against you. It will also limit you, even if others are not limiting you in any way. Spending your time gathering information or know-how is always worth more than skipping that step and hoping you will pick it up along the way, or that someone will keep you fully informed, or something along those lines. You want to be in a position where you are not stuck spending an hour trying to figure out something that would take 20 seconds if you knew how to do it.
Make The Choice For Knowledge
We all come across the opportunity in an event to either skip past some foundational learning or take it in while the opportunity is there. We often skip getting that knowledge because we think we are taking a shortcut which will save us time later, when it is actually the opposite. When someone else has a stronger foundation than you, they grow at a greater speed.
You’ve Got To Pick Up Those Steps You Will Use Often
Obtaining knowledge for yourself is highly relevant because lacking a piece of knowledge can lead to it being used against you, or to you being controlled by someone who has that knowledge. The first person to ever make a fire then had a huge controlling advantage over those around him until the information was passed on. This theme continues in different categories.
Knowledge Backs You Up In Times Of Trouble
The reason knowledge is your best friend is because it stays with you, helps you out more often than you would think, and is able to be improved upon. If there is a how-to guide for something you don’t know how to do, but you blow off the guide because you think it is too simple or easy for you to work though, you’re tossing away your chance at really understanding the process. “How-to” guides give you the real steps involved in doing something. While you can think about doing something for a long time, reading through a how-to of it, right before taking action, is a whole separate ballgame.
Gaining Knowledge Isn’t Able To Be Skipped
Knowledge catches up to you. Any sort of learning that is skipped comes back to take up your time and effort later. If you are learning a musical instrument, and skip learning some of the basic chords, because you think they are not as relevant as practicing a known song, you will lack the foundation to get far. When it comes time for songs that have a chord melody going on, you won’t be as interested in giving them a try, which may lead to you cutting down your efforts and eventually stopping trying to learn more piano skills. The knowledge behind something is what sets one person above the rest.
Stick To Long-Term Activities In Most Of What You Do
Another point is that others will notice when you skip getting the knowledge basis behind what you are doing, and will think that you work in short-term thoughts, as opposed to with long-term intelligence. Although Google or Wikipedia has made it easier to find some real information about a certain topic, it is the person who makes use of them that gives them relevance. eHow or Wikipedia or tutorial sites all have loads of time-saving knowledge in the field you are working through. It makes sense to use these, as one tutorial can represent what you would have learned in 5 days of frustration.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with what you said. I also want to add that we never stop to learn, especially after school.
Hi Oscar. Although most do stop much of their learning after school, it is not in their best interests, and is not in ours. It’s not like the end of one pursuit or another is the “off” switch for learning, but we sometimes treat it that way.
It’s funny because I’ve also often found that the more knowledge I get, some people, not everyone want to use that against you. On the odd occasion I’ve had people say to me ‘amit you’re a life coach, you should know better’!
I don’t because I’m still human and I still make mistakes.
Amit: That’s a good point. There are some few who won’t use what you don’t know against you on purpose, as they have good intent, but they are far outnumbered by those who are glad to. A SEO expert who runs a finance site may look at a competing finance site that has obvious SEO issues and be glad for their shortcomings.
That’s true about life coaches not being invincible or making errors; expectations are sometimes hilarious.
Yep knowledge is awesome. The more the merrier
Anthony: Good call there, and more certainly does result in a happier person. We sometimes feel a void when we stop learning, and that void grows unless we get in the habit.
Knowledge is wonderful and definately a warm friend any day. Yet Application is your lover and it will take you forward
Jon: This is a valid follow-up to the message here. Application is the sister of knowledge, or something like that, because it is the part where it is used, but at the same time, it is hard to find someone who gets a piece of how-to or explanatory knowledge who doesn’t use it. A child who just learned how to tie their shoes will then try to tie their shoes 20 times, just as we tend to do with winning new knowledge that we didn’t have before.
Twitter: ryanbiddulph
November 9, 2009 at 8:43 am
This is a timely post, I am reading it in a library
Knowledge is power but it’s also important to put the knowledge into action. This leads to wisdom. Learn as much as possible and in the process keep on moving forward. You’ll get the tools (knowledge) along the way.
Ryan: Cool thing about reading this in a library. Now I’m imagining it being read in a library so that is nice information to hear.
The action sure is step 2 of the process. If I learn how to grow a tomato plant successfully, I will then run to the local hardware store and get some seeds to get the process started, if they grow with seeds. Also, I might need soil or some potting mix there.
Thanks to your first comment, this post is both timely and timeless(thanks to the site label).
I couldn’t agree more Armen “Any sort of learning that is skipped comes back to take up your time and effort later”, sometimes we might think we are saving time by skipping the knowledge, but actually we are wasting our time by doing that.
Hi Lana.
If you can’t agree more, we will have to agree to disagree. I’m joking.
You sure are right that it comes back to attack later. It’s somewhat frustrating too, because the same person you got ahead of by skipping getting the foundational knowledge then comes to catch up and surpass you, and there is little you can do to grow at the speed they grow at.
Good call.
Thanks Armen. I like your analogy of playing an instrument. If you just sit the chords and go straight to playing the song, you will have trouble playing in the future. This will cause you to go back and spend more time on learning the proper chords again anyway (experience – piano). That’s why it’s best to get the basics down and never stop learning about the knowledge that is readily available around us.
Hi Tristan.
You sure saw the analogy there with the piano material. You try to play something without knowing chords and every little thing is hard. It is like typing on a keyboard without knowing how to type properly. You have to waste time finding each key. When we skip knowledge-gaining for this or that, we have to search for each small step when we should already know each small step.
Good to hear from you.
Twitter: bretthimself
November 9, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Armen,
Love the post, but as a guy who loves taking action, you must know that we can’t justify inaction with “oh, I’m gathering information, so when I’ve learned everything I can act” as a backwards rationalization. We must know where to draw the line when it comes to gathering knowledge. That is, we have to be careful only to learn what we need in order to get the job done and then DO THE JOB, because the action is what counts. We try to put it off by saying, “Oh, I’m waiting until I know more about this topic,” but the truth is we’ll never know all there is to know about anything. At some point, we need to drop the manuals and books and just act.
Hey Brett.
Thanks about the post. It sure isn’t a good thing to justify action by saying that information is being gathered. There is a limit to how much is to be gathered before action, but there is also a certain amount to get before action to get a foundation set.
Your point about putting something off due to wanting more information is right though. Action shouldn’t be postponed because of lack of information, because that is a weak reason.
“Drop the manuals” could be Nike’s new slogan.
This response was to Brett, himself.
I think action can be more beneficial when you apply it to what you have learned. Learn and apply, what is debatable is how much you should learn before you start action, as you may feel like you never have enough knowledge to begin action. I believe this is also what Brett is saying.
Hi Jeanette.
I sure would not discount the power of action. You are right about that point about what is debatable, as we sometimes wonder how much to get before we put out, but certainly some foundation-building is very handy.
Twitter: aflourishinglif
November 10, 2009 at 3:35 am
Hi Armen,
I’m a big fan of knowledge and education. What I have played with more recently is learning, then letting it go. That way intuition and creativity come through, and I’m not boxed in by my knowledge. If any of the knowledge is needed, say in a given situation or to solve a certain problem, it is available, but, for the most part, I’ve stopped trying to figure things out with my mind. I find the natural flow of things is completely trustworthy.
Hey Gail.
That is cool to hear. I haven’t heard that before about letting it go, but I get the concept behind it after some thought. I like how that sounds. You understand a tutorial or piece of information, and then don’t worry about knowing it, and follow it up with action that hopefully makes use of it. This sounds like the flow here, and reminds me of Tara’s book “The Flow: 40 Days To Total Life Transformation”.
Good material.
Good points in this articles and agree with you most. Reading elsewhere that continuously learning is an important factor for long life living besides having a healthy lifestyle.
Hi Phaoloo.
It sure does lead to a healthy lifestyle. I have read various articles about how educational level correlates to health. Now, there is also the factor of how better conditions for a person bring about both, so that has to be taken into account.
Also, doing tough questions or puzzles does a lot for your brain. It is worth it bigtime to keep doing puzzles or think hard. We usually leave it undone when we haven’t tested or such in a long time, but critical thinking skills help to put us way ahead of the competition.
Thanks for bringing up that point.
Hey Armen,
what do you think of the phrase “ignorance is bliss”? lol
I agree with you by the way on how knowledge is our best friend. The biggest asset for being a human being is having the ability to LEARN. With skills and knowledge anyone of us can pretty much do anything in the world. Unfortunately a good part of the world lack the resources that we have here in our developed countries.
We are lucky to be able to access almost limitless amount of information and knowledge even with just a few simply clicks on the web. I hope the world will one day equalize the power to access knowledge.
Thanks for this post and the reminder along with it Armen.
Steven
Hey Steven.
I think that ignorance is failure. When I don’t know something, and it is used against me, it isn’t like I should always first say “I didn’t know that.” There are people that wait to use that line, but each time you use that line, you are letting people know you aren’t on the pro-active end of the equation. Instead of saying “I didn’t know that”, say “I should have known that and will take action to get more relevant learning in any topics I run across.” We have more than enough opportunity to get above average learning in numerous fields.
We sure do have access to a lot of knowledge, but very few make use of it, which is not so great for the general populace, but reduces competition for those few that make the effort to advance.
Big ups to Steven from Human Explosion Incorporated Association Conglomerate Corporation.