Wisdom is a function of knowledge more than experience

Old saying, heard on the street:

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."

Source: http://blog.timberry.com

I respect Tim Berry for he created a business planning software that helps entrepreneurs, and he seems to genuinely want to help entrepreneurs succeed.

However, his quote above simply doesn't make any sense.

It's one of those quotes that most people would readily agree with... until they think about it in a disciplined and lucid manner.

For instance, WHY would good judgment come from experience? There are women who keep attracting abusive men into a relationship. How does "experience" help them to improve their judgment and, hence, choose a better mate?

Here's a more shocking illustration to drive my point home. Suppose you're the father of a 17-year-old daughter. She comes to you asking for advice and clarification on the issue of sex.

Would you tell her, "Honey, it's all about developing good judgment, and good judgment comes from experience. So go out there and..."

Well, you get my point.

Okay, one last example. There are men who work as employees for 20 years. They still don't understand the business game, nor the capitalistic system in which business, the game, is played. So they never get rich. Their 20 years of "experience" did not teach them economic judgment.

To replace Berry's quote, I would suggest the following: "When you don't know, you don't know."

In other words, get the knowledge first. Then use experience to validate or invalidate your knowledge (that is, to TEST it).

Also, learn from experiments, not experience. An experiment is more scientific, and you have greater control over the experimental conditions. "Experience" is more chaotic and less structured.

In conclusion, let me share with you what the great Confucius had to say about learning. According to him, there are three main ways to learn:

1. Through trial and error

2. Through imitation (doing like the people who succeed in your field of endeavour)

3. Through meditation (learning through logic, analysis, thought, synthesis, mapping, etc.)

With #1, you learn through your own mistakes, and you often pay dearly for such learning.

With #2, you learn through others' mistakes (and successes, since success always leaves clues for you to study, reverse engineer, systematize, etc.). You pay nothing, since the price of learning has been paid by those who have succeeded.

#3 is best since you learn by THINKING, that is, by exercising that supreme faculty that distinguishes humans from animals.

The man who has developed a taste for thinking, has great power. He can invent anything, and by the simple and repeated act of mentally manipulating symbols and encoded knowledge, he creates wealth for himself and all those around him.