Thoughtless Ideas
Last night as I creeped home from work in stop-and-go traffic I noticed a small pickup truck pass me, its bed cap bedecked with pro-Kerry and anti-Bush stickers. Over the space of two or three traffic lights, I was able to read all of them, as she in the left lane and I in the right (naturally) passed each other with the natural ebb-and-flow of city driving. I have my own sticker (of a markedly different variety) on the back of my car, and was hoping she'd notice, but alas, she was consumed with a cell phone conversation.
One sticker on the back of the truck had the unintended consequence of making me laugh out loud. It said: "Ideas are more important than knowledge." That, my friends, explains a lot.
I was still considering this monumental admission when I received an email from a friend containing many musings from the great Thomas Sowell. One seemed like it was written in response to that sticker:
My job involves designing new functionality for my company's Web applications. I have loads of ideas. Most do not end up as software, as they get filtered through the real world experience of technical feasibility, cost and time restraints, and finding out that there are better ways of doing things than those which I proposed.
What I've also found is that while many people pass ideas on to me, the ideas from those people with the most knowledge are by far the best. And it is usually from that knowlege that such ideas naturally spring.
The notion put forth by the bumper sticker is to laud laziness. It takes time, and work, and determination to gain knowledge. But who doesn't have an idea, right now? It's yet one more way we can all gain self-esteem without having to actually accomplish anything.
It is my hope, therefore, that a political Darwinism evolves, such that those who continue to scorn achievement continue to achieve nothing.
One sticker on the back of the truck had the unintended consequence of making me laugh out loud. It said: "Ideas are more important than knowledge." That, my friends, explains a lot.
I was still considering this monumental admission when I received an email from a friend containing many musings from the great Thomas Sowell. One seemed like it was written in response to that sticker:
People who pride themselves on having ideas often fail to understand that only after ideas have been filtered through realworld experience do we know whether they are right or wrong. Most turn out to be wrong.
My job involves designing new functionality for my company's Web applications. I have loads of ideas. Most do not end up as software, as they get filtered through the real world experience of technical feasibility, cost and time restraints, and finding out that there are better ways of doing things than those which I proposed.
What I've also found is that while many people pass ideas on to me, the ideas from those people with the most knowledge are by far the best. And it is usually from that knowlege that such ideas naturally spring.
The notion put forth by the bumper sticker is to laud laziness. It takes time, and work, and determination to gain knowledge. But who doesn't have an idea, right now? It's yet one more way we can all gain self-esteem without having to actually accomplish anything.
It is my hope, therefore, that a political Darwinism evolves, such that those who continue to scorn achievement continue to achieve nothing.
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