squeeeb

what are your thoughts on school of hard knocks vs academia? experience vs. book knowledge.

i think of the scene in back to school in the business class where rodney dangerfield is talking about paying people off and kickbacks and how things really worked, as opposed to the model the teacher was teaching, of how things are supposed to work.

i think of a college graduate i talked to who had never been to africa but read a bunch of books about how to build a country tell me what it's like there and why it's fucked up, and when i told him what it was really like, and what it took to make things work, since i spent quite a while there trying to make things work, he told me "you have no idea what you are talking about." it was rather funny.

he had book knowledge that i didn't have, he knew certain causes and effects, trends, how things should work. i had actual knowledge and experience that he didn't have, i knew how the people would react and what they would actually do. if i knew what he knew, i might have been more effective. if he had the experience i had, he would know what knowledge he had would be applicable.


do you think one way is better or has an advantage over the other? both have merits and weaknesses. does one's merits or weaknesses outweigh the other, do they equal out in the long run, or is it comparing apples to lamps?

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onward to mayhem!