Excuse me, I'm just literate
Mark Twain said that there's no difference between a literate person who doesn't read books and an illiterate person. It's so true.
Many of my (very good) friends say I'm very smart. I always kindly respond that they should repeat that at least once a week since it's excellent for my self-esteem.
But seriously, I'm not smarter than the average person. I'm just literate!
When I pick up a book (non-fiction), I'm very aware that the author has put his best thinking into writing the book. Sometimes, 5 or 10 years of professional research went into writing the book.
On top of that, many authors hire a ghost writer or editor to polish the text so that reading the book becomes a very pleasant experience.
Best of all, most of the powerful and knowledge-packed books can be found in any good library, meaning you get the benefit of a smart person's knowledge and research for FREE!
This is why I don't understand why people sit at home in front of the TV set to watch mediocre programming (except for PBS, of course).
Sure, in the old days when things were simple and one could rely on job security, watching TV was not so bad.
But today, things are very, very complex. Everything is accelerating very fast. People who don't read books to improve their skills and stay updated on trends and technologies, will soon find that they have fallen behind.
A career used to be simple: you graduate from college or university, you apply for a good job at a big corporation and work hard, and you could expect the employer to keep you at least for 20 years. Marriage was a simple matter of getting someone to say yes. Health was simply a matter of eating fruits and vegetables regularly (and don't forget your peas!). Raising kids was simply a matter of feeding and clothing them. Dating was also simpler.
Today, there's speed dating. I don't know what THAT is all about. How can I possibly convey who I am in five minutes? I went to a speed dating event last week and, just to be on the safe side, I brought along a crisp copy of my resume so that after five minutes, the girl can at least bring home an accurate description of who I really am and what I'm capable of doing in terms of providing satisfactory services.
I'm just kidding, I never went to such events. (Please!)
My point is that life today is so complex.
Some people might say, "There's too much information out there!" Yet that is NOT the real problem.
In other words, the problem is not that what you know is more and more a smaller and smaller proportion of all the available knowledge in society.
No, the real problem is that what you know stays the same while what you SHOULD know (in order to do a good job and manage your career and/or business properly) is increasing really, really fast.
I will write about some solutions to this problem later.
Many of my (very good) friends say I'm very smart. I always kindly respond that they should repeat that at least once a week since it's excellent for my self-esteem.
But seriously, I'm not smarter than the average person. I'm just literate!
When I pick up a book (non-fiction), I'm very aware that the author has put his best thinking into writing the book. Sometimes, 5 or 10 years of professional research went into writing the book.
On top of that, many authors hire a ghost writer or editor to polish the text so that reading the book becomes a very pleasant experience.
Best of all, most of the powerful and knowledge-packed books can be found in any good library, meaning you get the benefit of a smart person's knowledge and research for FREE!
This is why I don't understand why people sit at home in front of the TV set to watch mediocre programming (except for PBS, of course).
Sure, in the old days when things were simple and one could rely on job security, watching TV was not so bad.
But today, things are very, very complex. Everything is accelerating very fast. People who don't read books to improve their skills and stay updated on trends and technologies, will soon find that they have fallen behind.
A career used to be simple: you graduate from college or university, you apply for a good job at a big corporation and work hard, and you could expect the employer to keep you at least for 20 years. Marriage was a simple matter of getting someone to say yes. Health was simply a matter of eating fruits and vegetables regularly (and don't forget your peas!). Raising kids was simply a matter of feeding and clothing them. Dating was also simpler.
Today, there's speed dating. I don't know what THAT is all about. How can I possibly convey who I am in five minutes? I went to a speed dating event last week and, just to be on the safe side, I brought along a crisp copy of my resume so that after five minutes, the girl can at least bring home an accurate description of who I really am and what I'm capable of doing in terms of providing satisfactory services.
I'm just kidding, I never went to such events. (Please!)
My point is that life today is so complex.
Some people might say, "There's too much information out there!" Yet that is NOT the real problem.
In other words, the problem is not that what you know is more and more a smaller and smaller proportion of all the available knowledge in society.
No, the real problem is that what you know stays the same while what you SHOULD know (in order to do a good job and manage your career and/or business properly) is increasing really, really fast.
I will write about some solutions to this problem later.
posted by Super Peter at 12:49 AM
<< Home