2. Never Stop Learning
09.09.06 - 11:04pm
Once again I have exhausted that magical fountain of technical inspiration so I’m going back to the basics, the 9 Rules of 9rules. Previously I wrote about the first and most important rule, “Love What You Do” and now it is time to learn something new with the second rule, “Never Stop Learning”.
In modern America it is safe to say that the accumulation of power is more important than the accumulation of any other “materialistic” object. Power can be acquired in many forms including weapons, people, money, and most importantly knowledge. Knowledge is indeed power, and power leads to success. No matter what you are learning, the sheer act of learning will help further your talents and help expand your usefulness. You could be a broke kid straight from college but by utilizing your collected knowledge in a particular field you can easily snag a high-paying job doing something very important or so they tell us here at Georgia Tech. No matter what though, I have had plenty of experiences that show that knowledge is power and one should never stop learning.
Ironically this blog stemmed from my desire to spread the knowledge that I have accumulated and so far I’d like to believe it has been a success. One should never judge how successful one is by the website hit statistics however when there is a healthy discussion THAT is a sign of a damn good post. I’ve had a few good posts around here and I must admit I love seeing the discussions even if they can be a bit negative towards me. Like I have always said, the entire Internet isn’t interesting and that unfortunately applies to here also. I never promise to write gems every-time I write however I do strive to continue learning so that I can at-least pump out some diamonds often enough so that I don’t feel useless.
Just remember that no matter what you are doing with your life knowledge is power and you should always try to advance yourself in the world by acquiring more power. Besides the self-satisfaction in being a walking encyclopedia you will also have the ability to raise your standard of living, meet more interesting people, and hopefully pull in some cash when you try to apply that knowledge. Now I need to go acquire some more knowledge and hopefully utilize it into creating another gem just for you guys.
Kind of an aside to this, but I drag around a book with me just about everywhere I go. Sometimes it’s fiction. Sometimes it’s history, or a foreign language book, or.. something else that a lot of people wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole. So, I get a lot of variations on this question:
“So, what are you learning that for? A class?”
“No.. I’m just learning because it interests me. Just for the sake of learning.”
“Okay, but what are you going to use that for?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have any real intention of ‘using’ it for anything. I’m just reading it to learn.”
It kind of makes me sad that a lot of people don’t have that going. I’m certainly not doing the holier-than-thou thing in regards to these folks. Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll realize I’m burning up all of my time becoming a walking encyclopedia, and it hasn’t done me a bit of good.
But until then, I figure I’ll continue dragging a book around with me.
This is def. one of the rules i follow, i was very lucky to land a tech job at a local high school which is allowing me to get paid a nice wage and to continue my learning… gotta love the government some days :)
I just think back to the days of High School and remember all the people who made fun of me being a geek, and i thank them for making me hard and helping me realise you should never change yourself just to fit in.
Hehehe FYI i ran into alot of the people who made my life hard in High School and most of them have become doll bludgers and trolley pushers :) COP THAT HE SAYS!