Pages

Thursday, May 26, 2011

What is knowledge?

Most of us have been to school. Many of us have been to college. Some of us have been to graduate school. And few of us go on to get a PhD. So what is knowledge?


I throw this question open to everyone. We learn a lot of things when we study in school. But many a time, we learn much more through our experiences than our books. So if you were given a choice, between selling your experience or selling what you learnt in educational institutions (assuming both cost an equal amount of $1,000,000) which one would you choose? Then comes the question of who deserves to know what. A lot of the people who are doing their undergraduate degree in India have a feeling that they are not where they want to be. Many get frsutrated with their stream of study. Sadly very few realize there are no barriers that prevent you from gaining knowledge. True, being an engineering student, you might not get to study finanace in as great a detail as the finance student themselves, but no one will stop you if you wish to acquire that knowledge. No one's going to stop you from reading the same books they read. No one's going to stop you from learning from the same teacher as them (unless the teacher himself doesn't wish to grant you the knowledge you seek). Thats the funny part about life. We complain about being stuck with a choice (sometimes for the next 4 years and sometimes for our whole life), but little do we realize that we have the power to control it.

I don't wish to digress into talking about controlling your destiny because the paragraph above may imply that. What I would like to mention is how we accept what is given to us rather than seek out what will not be given to us. Since I'm from an engineering background, its better if I talk about engineering students. India is probably one of the few countries in the world, where so many intelligent students decide to choose an engineering stream after 12th even before they know what each stream offers. Many of them realize that they did something wrong for 4 years and try to correct that with an MBA. Many do engineering just to do MBA after their bachelor's as they believe it's a good combo. Many like their stream so much they go on to pursue a masters and doctorates and then there's the vast majority which wonders what they are doing studying in a particular branch. So often we wait to find out what we like rather than proactively seek it ourselves. We wait to see what our branch teaches us, rather than see whats in this world that we find interesting. The point I'm trying to make here is, many a time, an engineering student gets entangled in his branch and fails to see the beauty of other fields. Of course, the common problem is 'lack of time' but to be honest, thats not true. The fun part about learning things that are not taught by your branch is that you will never get tested in it. That knowledge is free for you to accumulate and use as you see fit. And you won't be judged on it. Many students fail to capitalise on this thought process. For example there are so many artists amongst engineers who keep their artistic pursuits only as a hobby. Why doesn't the Indian student break free from structure and regulation to do what he likes. Ofcourse, we all know the answer to that one. But I hope and I look forward to the day, where an engineering student becomes an artist and keeps his engineering degree as a backup, as compared to the other way round as many people choose. I look forward to the day, when a student in a particular stream decides to learn things from other fields, because he's tired of learning only what his teachers teach him. I look forward to the day when the Indian student finally decides to break free of academic structure to seek knowledge on his own and completely fullfill his curiosities.

originally by (Aditya Kulkarni on Friday, October 1, 2010 at 12:18pm)


Read more...