GrasshopperNotes.com - Thoughts for inspired living


July 17, 2020

Misapplying The Facts

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 6:52 am

Laura kapfer hmCMUZKLxa4 unsplashOur world has highly educated and highly experienced people. Often these two peoples’ are at odds.

Highly educated, smart people aren’t necessarily experienced. And experienced people aren’t necessarily smart.

In America, we build altars to one and keep the other on the church steps. Can you guess which one is exalted?

Common sense is available to both, but it seems one uses it more than the other. Can you guess which one?

Smart people are great arguers. Experienced people let their results speak for themselves.

Smart people cite facts to make their arguments. Experienced people don’t let facts deter them. It’s not that they don’t recognize facts; they just don’t misapply them.

Perhaps a story would be helpful . . . Here’s my experience when attempting to help very smart people overcome something that’s getting in their way. Smart people are harder to help because they amass abundant facts and build a wall around themselves with them. It’s hard to penetrate that wall and get them to see that they use facts as a defense of their limitation.

Smart people often confuse themselves with the facts. They find a never-ending list of them to declare and defend their position that something’s not possible, whereas the experienced person is more focused on the outcome they want and don’t let the facts get in the way.

It seems the smarter we are, the more abundant our facts, and our excuses.

This is not a rant against smart people. I love them. They bring unlimited perspectives to things I would never have thought of. It’s more of an acknowledgement of experienced peoples’ accomplishments – ones they were never schooled in.

Here’s my self-educated request: Show me your experience, not your argument.

All the best,

John

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