Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Be Practical!

Today's topic: Practicality. The following is simply my take on the topic at hand. Let the rant begin!

In our world, we have mainly two routes to go when we have to make a decision. We can go the practical route, meaning what makes sense in that specific situation, at that very moment in time. If the same thing happened again, but slightly different, you might make a different decision based on the slight difference. Then we have the second option, book knowledge or "book smarts". This would be using the same decision making skills in all similar situations, without adapting to the specifics of these situations.

You might think I'm just rambling about nonsense, but there are people in this world that are solely one or the other. There is no meshing of the two; no blending together of options in how to react to the situation. Some people react to situations based on what they have read from a book without looking at the little things that have caused, or come from, this specific situation. They believe the problem can be solved so easily, not having the practical knowledge to examine all of the external and internal factors to the problem. Thinking "outside the box" does not come from a book! The knowledge, skills, and abilities that come from a book can only get you so far. They are a stepping stone to an ultimate way to solve problems, where one uses that book knowledge with his practical knowledge and skills.

Alternatively, one cannot purely rely on practical knowledge either. There should be some base knowledge from those books. If for nothing else, than to just be learned for later application to their already stellar practical knowledge!

Alright, my rant is over! Basically, use your common sense! I know many smart people who have absolutely no clue how to live in the "real" world. Next time you have to react to a situation, think about how you handle it and what type of person you are in this regard.

1 comment:

  1. I concur!!

    I would add that you can react to a given situation(bad), or respond(good) and use practical thought to make the best of any situation.

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