Fandango’s Provocative Question #96: DEPTH OR BREADTH?
From Fandango:
“We live in a fast moving information age where we are bombarded with, and sometimes overwhelmed by, the many things that we see, read, and hear. We try to keep ourselves informed and up to date as we sort through the myriad information we are exposed to. However, this comes at a cost, in that, while we may know a little about a lot, what we know about any given subject, may be limited. The old expression “Jack of all trades, master of none” illustrates this interesting dichotomy of how we view knowledge.”
We may view knowledge that way, but I don’t. I think most of us are genius enough to be master of all knowledge, but also, most of us have a deep knowledge of a few things, areas where we feel established and capable. Along with that we have a bunch more areas about which we know less, but would be interested in learning more. And a bunch of things we either can’t master, don’t care to master, or haven’t encountered yet. There’s a lot of stuff going on in this world and we only know a small piece of it.
The words du jour from Fandango to us…
A lot of people know a lot more than me in every way (they were probably better students that I was, too!), and in some areas, I know a lot more than I thought I did. Interesting how knowledge collects. I think no knowledge, however gained, goes to waste. As some point in your life, everything you learned will get taken out storage, dusted off, and resurrected.
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Categories: #FPQ, Education, Fandango's One Word Challenge, learning, Provocative Questions, Word Prompt
Serendipity Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth 
Precisely. Very deftly put too. And. I think you’re so wise. You know you don’t know, and you don’t go about pretending to know. If you want to know, you ASK. That’s damned rare any more.
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I never figured out why so few people don’t just ASK a question if they want an answer. Fear of looking stupid rather than just plain looking stupid? When you admit you don’t know, it indicates a willingness to learn. Today Owen got a customer who announced to him that Trump had managed to get 400 electoral votes. So Owen went online and nope, no 400 votes. Guess which “news” station SHE watches?
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I concur… no knowledge, however gained, goes to waste.
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I always think that those who never seem to learn lack a fundamental human drive: curiosity. When something interests me, I try to learn more about it, whatever it is. Most people are not curious enough to go a find information. They wait for it to be “fed” to them — on social media or TV or something, but they don’t read and they don’t dig to find the truth. It has turned us into a big nations of dummies.
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… a big nations of dummies who end up with Trump as president.
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WHEN I ENTERED THE PEACE CORPS, I HAD TO LEARN ABOUT A NEW COUNTRY, CUSTOMS, POLITICS, PEOPLE, AND LANGUAGE. I KNEW NOTHING. BY THE END OF TWO YERS AND THREE MONTHS,I KNEW A LITTLE ABOUT A LOT. WHAT’S INTERESTING IS THAT YOU FIND YOURSELF FLOUNDERING IN TWO LANGUAGGES. I WAS TEACHING ENGLISH TO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO WERE STUDYING TWO OR THREE OTHER LANGUAGES AT THE SAME TIME. AH, YOUTH IS A WONDERFUL THING.
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Way to go. But you are still curious, still learning. If you have a drive to learn, you will keep learning. On my list of things I can give up, curiosity isn’t even on the list because I don’t think I could give it up. It’s a part of me.
When Owen and I were in Israel, he learned fluent Hebrew (at age 10) in six months and I never got quite the grip on it. It’s possible I didn’t try hard enough.
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Agree with you Marilyn.
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As long as you never stop learning, your mind never grows old and neither do YOU.
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Oh yes, absolutely
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