Flights Into The Unknown
I've been watching the financial markets these days with a fair amount of amusement, coupled with a sort of empathetic sadness for the millions of people who have been taken for a ride by those at the top. This blend of emotions is not new to me.
Quite often, people who know what is good for themselves – whether in education, finance, or any other area of service expertise – don't see how others might not be able to stomach that kind of medicine, succeed in such an area, or otherwise emulate them. It's quite telling that many of these people will say, "Don't do as I did; do what I say; I know better than you."
At the most cynical, you can say of some people that they are acting to protect their monopoly of experience. If you fail, they will say, "See, I have learnt lessons from my past and I know you couldn't have made it my way." If you succeed, they will say, "You are fortunate, not many people would have succeeded in this way." Either way, they end up looking good.
The thing is that quite often, the stuff that is on the table is not real stuff. The supposed knowledge, experience and superior talent is as much an artifact for some people as lipstick on a pig. The stuff didn't get there because of the pig, but in spite of the pig. History is a pastiche of many such accidents, adding up to something that looks meaningful.
That's not to say that sometimes the knowledge, experience and superior talent can't be more like a moustache on a musketeer. In this latter case, the musketeer has of course grown the stuff himself. More importantly, he nurtured it, groomed it, trimmed it when necessary, and capitalises on it. History's framework also contains many such.
In the end, the important thing for me and my students is that one should test everything. Is the knowledge valid? Is the experience useful? Is the talent reliable? In other words (which my poor students have heard many times before), is what is offered the right thing? Is it going to be of use to you even if it is? And can you trust it to give the same results again and again?
Otherwise, you might as well jump off into the unknown – and worse, into someone else's unknown.
Quite often, people who know what is good for themselves – whether in education, finance, or any other area of service expertise – don't see how others might not be able to stomach that kind of medicine, succeed in such an area, or otherwise emulate them. It's quite telling that many of these people will say, "Don't do as I did; do what I say; I know better than you."
At the most cynical, you can say of some people that they are acting to protect their monopoly of experience. If you fail, they will say, "See, I have learnt lessons from my past and I know you couldn't have made it my way." If you succeed, they will say, "You are fortunate, not many people would have succeeded in this way." Either way, they end up looking good.
The thing is that quite often, the stuff that is on the table is not real stuff. The supposed knowledge, experience and superior talent is as much an artifact for some people as lipstick on a pig. The stuff didn't get there because of the pig, but in spite of the pig. History is a pastiche of many such accidents, adding up to something that looks meaningful.
That's not to say that sometimes the knowledge, experience and superior talent can't be more like a moustache on a musketeer. In this latter case, the musketeer has of course grown the stuff himself. More importantly, he nurtured it, groomed it, trimmed it when necessary, and capitalises on it. History's framework also contains many such.
In the end, the important thing for me and my students is that one should test everything. Is the knowledge valid? Is the experience useful? Is the talent reliable? In other words (which my poor students have heard many times before), is what is offered the right thing? Is it going to be of use to you even if it is? And can you trust it to give the same results again and again?
Otherwise, you might as well jump off into the unknown – and worse, into someone else's unknown.
Labels: Education, Epistemology, Experience
etched with acid at 11:15:00 am
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