“Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.” – Ezra Pound
There is a direct message being described here, which is that the very few who are highly determined to acquire education are the ones who it really benefits to provide it to, while the rest of the people are to be allowed to watch from the sidelines. The provision of education is wasted on those who are not really interested in learning the material.
This concept can be extended to the thought that only those who are 100% directed towards a goal are the ones who should, and will, obtain it. A person who puts a goal on the back burner, leaves it for a later week, thinks that he can get the chance to do it later, or works toward the goal lightly is indirectly saying that the goal isn’t that relevant to him. Most of the time, when someone says “I really plan to do it soon” more than once, you can expect that the goal is not high on their priority list, regardless of the amount they discuss it.
Education continually evolves
Education has to be grasped for, because the information behind it is continually changing, so it is impossible to work linearly towards obtaining knowledge in a category. By the time you end up understanding 20% of a specific category of learning, 30% of the research in the category may then be updated. This is why people that are not reaching out for their education will soon be out of the loop, because their routine towards it is not sustainable, and they are easily derailed from keeping up. If education were at a standstill, people could learn a certain amount of items and then be completed. Also, competition comes into play here, as you might learn X items, but if someone else learns X + 2 items, you are once again at a disadvantage, and need to educate yourself further to stay relevant.
Strictness helps education transmit more efficiently
If the opportunity for education was removed for those that weren’t battling to acquire it, we would see less frustrated individuals, because much of that frustration comes from spending time on learning that one is not actually planning to use much of for future actions or efforts. At the end of Richard Dawkins’ TED speech about atheism, he concluded with “Let’s all stop being so damned respectful.” Although his speech was about a different subject, it relates in that harshness can be more beneficial than friendliness for both the acceptor to educational facilities and the mindset of the one wanting to be educated. There has to be passion on both sides for the transfer of knowledge to occur.
Academic admissions
The most successful academic institutions commit a plenitude of effort to their admissions processes, in order to keep out those that are trying to “game” the institution, or those that are not really interested in the institution but applied leisurely. The push-pull effect shows up here, in that the more someone is pushed away from reaching a goal, the more they will pull back towards it, if it really is their goal.
Knowledge has to be applied
The way to use this information is to judge which knowledge you are passionate about seeking, versus the knowledge you are seeking for ostentatious or ancillary purposes, and to remove those educational pursuits that you don’t plan to make use of. If one person learns ten things they don’t put to use, and another person learns one thing that he does put to use, one of them will get a set of results while the other is limited to bragging about the knowledge he has in fact wasted. To repeat that point for memory purposes, something that you learn, but don’t make use of, is worthless to you.
Books connecting to this issue
Quite a few books have a message that relates to this concept. Seth Godin’s “The Dip” speaks about how if you are not passionate enough to get through the dip that shows up as a difficult test during your efforts, you are better off not pursuing that path. In the same way, if you don’t see yourself building and building upon knowledge in a category you are planning to learn in, you are better off not heading in that direction. Leo Babauta’s “The Power Of Less” says to do less, in order to get more done; this relates here in that doing a small amount of learning in a subject, and then applying that learning passionately, is worth loads more than learning heavily about a subject and not applying that learning to a product, creation, or service.
Reality show similarity
Relating to pop culture, American Idol has Simon Cowell, Hell’s Kitchen has Gordon Ramsey, The Apprentice has Donald Trump, and any successful reality interview/selection show has a well-known judge on their show who represents the idea that if you are not passionately reaching towards your goal, and in the right category that suits your strengths, you will be admonished or removed from the selection process. TV judges, university admissions personnel, hiring managers, and research grant providers are all examples of people that work to lead passionate and fitting people towards their goals, and to keep any other individuals out of their way.