consumers of knowledge
all parts for a purpose, details matter
Social phenomena. Wealth and attitude. Learning for a purpose.
Many articles regarding America’s “consumer culture” exist. There are articles about America’s 40 year process of switching from “saving” money to “consuming” goods and services. Saving has always had a purpose: for a rainy day, etc. Consuming too has a purpose: food provides nourishment, homes provide shelter, even entertainment has some notional purpose. Yet, at some point there is a limit: too much consuming, or even too much saving.
What about knowledge? Human beings do save knowledge. That began with the invention of the written word. Libraries as the storehouse of knowledge, deposit one’s knowledge in a bank of knowledge. Human beings also consume knowledge: “I devoured that book!” More specifically we consume knowledge when we create inventions… built on the shoulders of giants. Inventions are the purposeful utilization of ideas that previously, haven’t been assembled in quite the same manner.
The analogy: we save and consume knowledge just like we save and consume money, goods and services. Additionally there are limits to all of these functions.
Social media, social processes of education… going to the best schools because of the circle of friends found there. Facebook didn’t emerge from the University of Phoenix. What happens when the purpose of accumulating knowledge is simply to further one’s social standing?
Impress your friends with knowledge. Dialogue is essential. As any MBA can tell you, posturing etc. is all a part of getting what one wants from a situation. Perhaps it is at “universities of higher education” where we learn these winning methods of dialogue which enable us to always win an intellectual argument. “Critical thinking skills” become simply using detailed knowledge coupled with conversational style points, to win an argument. The following is an example from the end of an essay about the complexities of treating depression. After taking the reader through detailed examples and counter examples, the author throws his hands up and implies that you, dear reader, will never be able to comprehend all the complexities that the author has painstakingly researched:
No one suggested that treating depression would be easy. Of course it is difficult. Yet over the last 10,000 years, human beings have proved their ability to understand and comprehend an ever increasing array of complex phenomena. It was only a few centuries ago we scientifically believed in spirits and such, now we can explain solar eclipses, tectonic plate shifting, growth of bacteria, etc. It is presumptuous to say “No science will ever answer them.” oh yeah… give us a few thousand years!
There is a change taking place.
America is no longer saving and storing knowledge for use: more patents are created in Asia than America. But America has become a consumer of knowledge… consuming knowledge to win arguments with colleagues. There are always exceptions. In the following link provides two stories. One about failing to innovate because companies wallow in “consuming knowledge to win arguments with colleagues.” The second article is about inventing through careful and applied focus of knowledge on a problem. Utilizing knowledge from a storehouse, and assembling it in new ways to achieve a purpose.