From the lack of it
I received a special request to say more on the statement I made yesterday.
Wisdom is best learnt from a lack of it — Nduka Chukwubuikem.
Ignoring the semantics of the statement (again, taking the message and not the messenger, in this e the messenger being the phrasing), the logic of the statement holds true.
When people talk about experience being the best teacher, it points to this logic. When a person learns from experience, a majority of the time points to the person learning not to omit, or ignore, or fail to notice, something. He has learnt to not be ignorant, or foolish, or UNWISE, and that has made him wiser.
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When we were young, our parents would tell us stories of success and failures. Theirs, their parents’, siblings’, whoever. The successes were most times used to encourage, and the failures to teach us. The reason is simple.
More often than not, and you must forgive my generalizations here, learning to replicate a past positive does not guarantee future profit. “Past performance not indicative of future results”. Common statement in investing. If I don’t read and I pass, not reading will not continue to make me pass, most times.
However, again forgive my deductions, learning to avoid a past negative will prevent future negatives. Learn from your mistakes. A common statement in…life. If I don’t read and I fail, I can now try and see that reading may help me fail less. What has happened there? I have become wiser.
It is not set in stone, but wisdom is best learnt from a lack of it.
Good evening!
