LeadershipTo lead others, first you must lead yourself. |
"I believe most in educated intuition, in what you get through profound experience."
posted by Simon @ 9:17 am
5 comments
Leadership (n): Leading yourself, leading people, making smart decisions so people will want to follow you.
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Story listener, story teller. Seeks truth. Sometimes wishes he didn't seek truth. Seeks anyway. Founder of SimonYoungWriters and cofounder of social media consultancy iJump.
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Kind of reminds me of something Einstein says: "There is nothing more detrimental to innovation and brilliance than formalised structures of education..."
I like -- and I think you live up to that.
-- AM
I'll try to keep my comments brief here, but I have to admit that I tend to disagree with that Einstein quote -- at least as it stands, without context. The fact is that the general theory of relativity could not be understood, much less discovered, without first experiencing that formalized, structured education. You first need the basic education -- which Einstein, for one, did receive.
The trouble probably begins where that structure cannot help any more: where the student must begin to find new knowledge, knowledge that does not yet exist. At this point only the human touch -- a good mentor, for example -- can really help. But there is nothing wrong with learning the basic precepts of mathematics and science, and gaining a basic understanding of literature and history, from traditional education. In fact, it is something that is probably missing from too many educations in the last couple of generations.
M@
I'd disagree with you Mat but only slightly and in a very picky way.
I don't know if Einstein was arguing against curriculum, and I certainly agree there should be a standard body of work that any new learner should get through.
My beef - and I suspect Einstein's - is the way it's presented. This stuff is fascinating, but when presented as a fait accompli, the thrill is gone.
Wouldn't it be great if our universities and other educational institutions recaptured the sense of wonder ... right now I'm reading about the 1500s, and people discovering America, and then Magellan finding that it's not the far east of the Far East, it's actually an entirely new continent!
Such discoveries must have blown peoples' minds at the time, yet today it's just a stream of facts and figures: Columbus 1492, Magellan 1513 (or whenever), Mayflower 1620 and so on.
It's like educational institutions have unknowingly erected walls of indifference. Some of them are starting to look outwards and discover the principles of product marketing. Meanwhile, curious people like me are looking everywhere but traditional education for learning experiences.
Hi Bros,
Look -- both of these explanations are informed and factually corroborated - my beef, if I can even call it that -- I have an issue with what I see on the streets on a daily basis - meaning - people drop the rest of the wonderful panorama of what life has to offer in exchange for a proverbial "pound of flesh."
Allow me to explain what I mean...
People, I find, are only too eager to accept upon themselves the structure of a system at the expense of innovating. I think to large degree -- SY -- you feel the way you do b/c you're so much a part of that ethos of excitement and alacrity that you so aptly describe -- moreover, I like to believe that you haven't been tainted by the dictates of academe. For that reason, I can isolate perhaps why you can identify with Einstein's maxim so well.
Matt -- in terms of what I know about you -- I think you've also been pleasantly affected by the Great One only in a different way -- you've gone from the inside-out -- to realise that what the hype is professed to be is *in fact* not q
Hi Bros,
Look -- both of these explanations are informed and factually corroborated - my beef, if I can even call it that -- I have an issue with what I see on the streets on a daily basis - meaning - people drop the rest of the wonderful panorama of what life has to offer in exchange for a proverbial "pound of flesh."
Allow me to explain what I mean...
People, I find, are only too eager to accept upon themselves the structure of a system at the expense of innovating. I think to large degree -- SY -- you feel the way you do b/c you're so much a part of that ethos of excitement and alacrity that you so aptly describe -- moreover, I like to believe that you haven't been tainted by the dictates of academe. For that reason, I can isolate perhaps why you can identify with Einstein's maxim so well.
Matt -- in terms of what I know about you -- I think you've also been pleasantly affected by the Great One only in a different way -- you've gone from the inside-out -- to realise that what the hype is professed to be is *in fact* not quite that way...so, I can see where you're going with that.
I would agree as well -- without the tools, the basics -- you're not going to get anywhere.
But I think Matt and I can see more eye-to-eye on something like this -- only because we come from the same place -- and we see the same sorts of people in our society -- I watch the young people -- on paper -- excellent -- in reality -- no unique skills. Everyone smart as a whip -- everyone clever and all-knowing - they can recite the entire user's manual for Windows XP to you -- and they know the best cellphone rate plans -- but they don't think of the underlying needs that was the Finnish aspiration for designing the portable unit in the first place -- nor did they have the same kind of beautiful mind the likes of Vint Cerf -- the creator of TCP/IP and the Internet -- eventually.
I'm looking for that sort of innovation -- not just getting by -- once you get by -- as in, cover your ass - you also have to use that extra cerebral power for something a little more important than just yourself and your own needs.
I think this is what Einstein was getting at -- snd I presume this sound bite was something he exclaimed only once he got to Princeton. My hunch...let's check the timing on that -- but it might actually be the right thing.
-- AM
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