What good is knowledge if you can’t put it to use? What is the point of studying Information Technology, Brain Science, and Artificial Intelligence if you can’t put those concepts into practice in the workplace? Is it just to increase self-knowledge or to impress someone with your ability to speak on certain topics?
What good is information and education if it is non-useful? This is assuming the areas of study have no application, affect, use in one’s field of employment, therefore making the knowledge useless. The topic areas are useful to aid in disproving a Theory or to grow in understanding or gain evidence in support of the Theory, but the theory and information is useless unless you can impress someone to fulfill a personal or professional goal. The knowledge could be considered a waste of time invested if it cannot be applied in a professional setting and the knowledgeable person cannot make money from their knowledge.
The decision to continue down the path of learning is dependent upon the person’s belief that the knowledge is 1) Impressive; 2) Useful; and 3) Valuable in terms of a paycheck. If it is not, then it is a waste of both time and energy.
Benjamin Franking wrote:
The noblest question in the world is what good may I do in it?
In 1831 a series of lectures was established to educate young men in Boston. Called the Franklin lectures, they were inaugurated by a prominent politician and orator, Edward Everett. He emphasized that, as far as happiness was concerned, no goal was greater than the enrichment of the mind. For those who lacked formal education, Franklin’s story could not be told too often, because his humble origins never discouraged him from educating himself.
“Franklin’s life from 1723-1756 began a career as a tradesman in Philadelphia, achieved striking financial and public success, and then, ‘retiring’ from purely commercial pursuits at the age of 42, he began, in a purposeful, self disciplined, and self-conscious fashion wholly typical of him, to devote himself to “such points as may produce something for the common Benefit of Mankind.”
Benjamin Franklin and the American Enlightenment
Dr. Richard Beeman, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of American History, University of Pennsylvania
It is said that Franklin’s personal ambition, intellectual curiosity and pleasure of in the thrill of intellectual discovery is what established his fame and greatness. As a young printer, with valuable experience, he claimed his ambitions were largely unfulfilled; much like myself after a 17 year career in Government and Technology.
There is a thirst for intellectualism, but a need for capitalism, bound by a system which requires both, restricted by Legal requirements and forced into what seems to be a devastating future without profitable potential. The requirement of formal education is restricted by by Society’s Law’s and what seems to be common standards for obtaining gainful employment in the field. While the intellectual ability and ambitions are present, along with the desire to learn and earn, the restrictions placed by the hiring community makes it impossible to profit from these theories and put learned abilities to use and rise above the poverty level accompanied by sickness and legal annihilation.
What can a philosophical intellectual offer in intelligence and day to day operations that will fulfill a personal need for Growth and Satisfaction of daily activities? What kind of position can an intellectual thrive in if not closely related to their personal field of intellectual intrigue and creative engineering, other than idea generation, or an educated and experienced viewpoint; a consultancy or a sounding board or witness in the proof of such ideas working in practice. Where are such companies that would hire someone just for an intellectual viewpoint that does not get hung up on requirements of the position, such as a blemish free record of wrongs or a checkbox that the individual meets hiring criteria for experience summarized in a bulleted list. Are the only benefactors of such a position in the education field, surviving by a grant given to perform research and write findings of the Universe’s possibilities or the world’s philosophical questions or how knowledge is captured, transferred, understood, and translated, used, and reused, stored, and manipulated or how one thought travels and is spoken by someone else 5,000 miles away or in the thinkers direct vicinity?
How can one who wholeheartedly believes in the possibility of Intellectual Engineering, Path Steering, and Brain Mapping put these ideas into practice by a paid for Company or organization when it is only fathomable and understood by a small set of select individuals and communities? Alternatively, how can one work as a lowly salesperson after finding clear and convincing proof of such facts? One must go beyond beliefs, but how if she lacks the ability to see it from a systems perspective and is riddled with fear of judgement, scrutiny, and disbelief; or just simply lacks the desire to share and promote these ideas or possibilities publicly.
She remains in a feeling of uselessness, a near slave, because she knows her ideas are being used, and feels abused because she is forced to lower her quality of life and barely survive to pursue her area of interest; an area that may never become part of public awareness. Fame for her is not of concern, it is her quality of life, mobility, and need for possessions that drive her, as well as the need for collaboration with like-minded individuals.
Perhaps she gains in life experience that is not applicable on this planet.