Progress with knowledge
IF knowledge can define our future and change our life, would you say yes to it? If you do, you have just earned a place in the league of the possibilists.
What happens when one constantly says no to any form of knowledge acquirement? One may have fallen into the confirmation bias trap. This happens when one only chooses to believe what one wants to believe.
One would stonewall acquirement of other knowledge in any form, leading to systematic error in inductive reasoning as one would lack the knowledge to back one’s judgment in any situation.
When one encounters an ambiguous situation, one may not be able to do anything. One’s interpretation may even be biased at that point. One’s life, future and wellbeing would not metamorphose into greatness if one chooses selective exposure to very limited knowledge. One would constantly go into wishful thinking mode and never take any concrete action. One may even get into trouble.
How crucial is knowledge? Let’s check out this report, “AKPK helps 14,688 individuals settle debts totalling RM593mil” (The Star, Oct 11). The report states that 68.7% of debtors who enrolled in the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency’s (AKPK) debt management programme had been unable to pay their credit card debts.
Poor planning is a major factor in financial difficulty and constituted 44.7% of the cases handled by AKPK.
Let’s look at another report, “Ranjit: Knowledge needed to manage financial resources” (The Star, Oct 14), where Tan Sri Ranjit Ajit Singh, the Securities Commission chairman, stressed the importance of financial literacy among youths.
As these reports show, knowledge is needed to make sound investment decisions, build and manage wealth and prepare for retirement.
Knowledge is the principled and righteous way of doing things. It’s a road map complemented with a compass. It can serve as many forms of art, for example art of prevention, art of living healthily, art of governing, etc.
Knowledge can also bring people together. A well-informed person, especially with strong general knowledge, would be capable of interacting with almost anyone from all walks of life. The more people we know, the luckier we are. We are inviting opportunities. We can’t do everything ourselves so we may need help. That’s when the people you know come into the picture.
Citing no time to acquire knowledge is a bad excuse. Should we schedule our priorities or prioritise our schedule? The former would be wiser. Emulate the Taiwanese. There are two evening peak hours of traffic in Taiwan. One is when the working people and yuppies rush for their evening class. The second is when they rush home after evening class.
To gain knowledge, one should mingle with the elite group, that is the professionals. One should ban- ish the thought that these people are intellectual bullies and would look down on them. So, gather the courage to get to know the elite group.
How do you see yourself in five years’ time? Reports on Industrial Revolution 4.0 are all over the media as it’s the direction and future now. How about initiating our personal direction and future to mesh with Industrial Revolution 4.0? Call it Knowledge Revolution 1.0 and we make a pledge to revolutionise our personal goal.
Someone once told me that if I knew more, my problems would be fewer. I subscribe to that as I have seen many real-life MacGyver-minded people troubleshoot an assortment of problems with extensive knowledge. We too should adopt the MacGyver mindset to promote acquisition of knowledge as a culture. A knowledgeable nation equals a happy nation.