More Important Than You Think……
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I realized just tonight that the internet is WAY more important and useful than I thought.
It can be the biggest waste of time ever (which is how most people use it) OR, it can be used in a way to completely change your life for the better.
This is all obvious and probably sounds like its not new at all. It seems like it was an article written in 1996, not 2013…
Just stay with me here; please. I think you’ll see what I mean.
If you’ve read my blogs (You really should) or listened to our hundreds of podcasts (The best are here in the VIP)
then you already know I don’t have a lot of respect for formal education. I think it’s pretty much a waste of time and money (except for the social and partying parts of it)
I just didn’t really know WHY I thought this so strongly. I had an idea why, but it really wasn’t SUPER clear until tonight. That’s why I’m writing this blog now. It’s fresh in my mind and I actually want to share it with you guys. It still amazes me that I can connect with people all over the world with an idea, and do it instantly from my bedroom in Shanghai. Imagine doing this only 20 years ago?
…Anyway, here is my point. I was thinking about how fast information is changing, and how being good at searching for information really makes a lot of school a complete waste of time. With information changing so fast all the time, school often becomes a joke because they are teaching stuff that isn’t useful TODAY. How could it be? Even our cultural values and beliefs change because society is always so different now. Old people have very useful advice on what things to appreciate in life, and some huge and important general wisdom they’ve learned from years of life experience. But they often, not always, but often have really pathetic advice for what is currently possible in today’s world. They just don’t get how easy it is to learn new stuff and how we can change our lives quickly with that new info.
It used to be such a great skill to be a lawyer. ”WOOOO, he/she has a law degree” It was such a big deal in the past, and people had such respect for this kind of thing. Now, it’s really not a big deal at all; at least it shouldn’t be.
Sorry if you are a lawyer, and I’d love to read your comments if you are, but laws are not secrets. 20 years ago, or even less, if you didn’t know how some legal thing worked, then how would you find the information? You’d have to contact a lawyer and ask them. You’d have to pay a bunch of money as well, even just to ask them a question.
I mean, would you find some info on laws in a book you found in a library? I highly doubt it. It was the same with accounting, the same with medicine, the same with even cooking foreign foods. If you didn’t know how to cook an Indian curry 20 years ago, you had no chance in learning. Now you’d be a fool if you couldn’t find that info in 2 minutes.
In today’s world, if you know how to search the internet well, you can really find out anything. This concept is not new, but what is new (at least to me) is what this all means……
It means that most of what we learned in school, from our parents, and from our culture is garbage. (Well, it’s not all garbage, but a lot of it is very very wrong)
How we learn now is different. The speed we learn is different; it’s much faster. Each person can become so much more knowledgeable than people in the past; like 50 times more knowledgeable. It should make us run our lives in a completely different way. We really don’t need so much formal education.
If you want to know about marketing, you can find about it online. If you want to know about accounting, you can find it online. Even though many of the articles are basic, you can at least find a good book on Amazon and order it if you want something more advanced. We should be able to do many more jobs than before, and we should be able to learn a lot about them quickly. We should be able to do so many more things than people in previous generations did. We can just find the information we don’t know about in a couple seconds.
I think we’re only beginning to realize how powerful the internet can be. This is just the beginning. The earlier you TRULY understand this concept and apply it to your life, the better your life will be.
Most people still are not taking advantage of the opportunities that lie on the internet. Do you agree with me? Why or why not?
How could you use it to improve your life?
Love to read your comments!
October 24th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
I agree completely with you, but to take advantage of this, you need a solid elementary education (excellent reading comprehension and basic maths skills). That’s where the governments have to put their efforts, because if you don’t understand what you read, there’s no hope of reaching something bigger.
October 24th, 2013 at 7:55 pm
Hello Andy . I totally agree with you, Andy. The world is no longer the same and the people who use the Internet, who benefit from it. I remember 10 years ago when I first bought the computer, my parents were skeptical about my purchase this toy computer .But now they understand the benefits of it. For me is not important to their opinion because I live alone and do not depend on them, but this is not the topic here. I’m thinking a lot and I keep thinking what to sell as the product, the question is to be useful to someone. I see the benefits of the big market here. And you guys found this niche here. I know that many people selling English language here, and that you find it difficult to succeed, believe me I know how it is.I am part of you here because I benefit from you and many others think. but I think is win-win. I’m happy for you guys. Who has brains and knows how and what to do, whether on the Internet or anywhere else, he will succeed. Internet want a little more, here you have to be a psychologist, what I mean to be a good salesman.10 years I had my own business, not on the Internet and have experience in this trade. Internet simplify life for many people. For people who understand to benefit from it.
Andy still keep writing, it is my pleasure to read and write here and to be part of this big family, if I may so call it.
October 25th, 2013 at 1:26 am
Thank you for the blog. I can’t see there’s any way to deny how true this is. With technology changing so fast than we could ever imagine, the old methods can’t keep up the pace of modern society in all respects. Those methods often dont work either. For learning, we totally benefit from the development of technology as well. Ppl used to be reading text as one of the major way to become knowledgeable, but what now? Videos and Movies. These material stimulate our brain ’cause more of our senses like hearing, visual, are used while learning.
October 25th, 2013 at 5:51 am
Hi Andy,
I am totally agree with your point which you mentioned here , information is just a twinkling of an eye in todays internet network then ever before, provided you know what you want from internet and how, so there is a analysis required on the net that what you want, but in my view this is just a beginning as you already said in you blog, as for as concern with the learning process it is true that we can learn things in a fast way and more matured way but there must be a mentor required so that we can excel our knowledge and for this, our education system establish for that, though that old legacy system must required to reform and should keep pace with todays fast growing life.as far as concern with the internet market yes definetly this market is growing fast and have a vast space to attract new enterprenuors and have a good capcity to sell your product by just a click.
October 25th, 2013 at 6:50 am
Hey audience let’s get this show on the road.
I am knee-deep in this topic. This is outside the scope of my expertise. I’d love to hear your point of views. If someone sold something or think about it ?
October 25th, 2013 at 10:18 am
A wise man said “Half knowledge is more dangerous than none!!!”. But this really is not my main disagreement. The danger lies in the fact that in real life you often do things that YOU DO NOT like, but essential for even survival let alone providing security to your self and your family. What formal education teaches you; INDIRECTLY, that you MUST PROVE that you are capable of doing JUST THAT.
Raise a pet, and then let it loose…chances are almost NULL that it will not survive.
October 25th, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Hi,
I agree with you that internet is very useful and it is something most people cannot live without. However, it is a two-edged sword. People can gain a lot of useful information within a few seconds, they can also receive harmful information in the sameway. We have a good tool, but we have to learn how to use it as well as teach our younger generation know how to use it effectively.
October 25th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
I could agree more. Nowadays, with the resouces of Internet, podcasts, e-books, etc, if someone is anything serious about learning English, there is no need to attend a formal course.
However, a good selection of material available on the web is necessary, because there is a great deal of trash as weel.
Sergio
October 25th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
I don’t really agree in a 100 per cent. We all use the computers,internet, iPads, tablets, mobiles etc and it’s all very easy! You just need to learn how to use it and that’s it. But not really many people wonder how does it work and how have other people made it. I study at University of Technology and simple thing, like light – we switch it on and off so many times a day.. but the way how it works it’s incredibly difficult to understand! So, if there were no people who gain this knowledge- where wasn’t be improvement in electricity and also computers, smartphones etc. The same is with websites. It’s so easy to searching the internet, but to write a script in java or C++ or so many other languages which I actually don’t know a lot about. So I think, that’s very important to learn all of those things to be able to keep improvements in technology. Otherwise it’s impossible.
At school there is so many lessons absolutely rubbish but some people find it interesting so many not. Unfortunately we have to do something in our lives and for example if I didn’t like a biology at school and it was absolutely unnecessary for me, it doesn’t mean that other people liked it and went to study medicine or something which I can’t imagine myself into for example.
So, I don’t really agree with this topic. Hope you fine with that
October 25th, 2013 at 9:27 pm
I agree with you only fifty percent. You forget something really important in your thinking…. information (=internet) is only a part of the equation. The second part and very very important is the knowledge. If a person read and study a book about how to perform a heart surgery, do you think people who need this surgery will trust him/her? or instead do you think they trust in a Doctor who performed this type of surgery hundreds of time?
The key question is: How to transform information in Knowledge?
October 26th, 2013 at 4:22 am
Hi..Andy
you are right in a way!!
the age of information has gone!!
nobody has trouble to get what they want,
in terms of infomation.
before when we want to get some information , we spent a lot of our precious time.
most people consumed their resource to get certain information.
but we are free to get those information.
then we should get a lot of free time to enjoy different things which enrich our life, is it possible , no , never!!! everybody has the advantabe of quick getting information, not just for me only..
so, the value of infomation is getting low.
then what’s next we have to value high!!
that’s the WISDOM!!
what kind of wisdom do we need??
to modify the school system in this flooing information age!! it’s impossible to get rid of those mammoth system.
we have to get wisdom to rebuild those system to help human being to be like happy humnan being!!
we should be balanced with knowledge and wisdom!!
thanks !!! ////////////
October 26th, 2013 at 6:24 am
Internet is really helpful but as you can see when something is within reach every body, and when you are exploded by the amount of information, you can’t use it in a proper way..as my experience shows, in the past, our fathers generation found the useful information,their interests, like treasures from the ground and value it more and learn it because they had passed the road of reaching that knowledge and all the difficulties..so in my opinion they are way more knowledgeable than us now. actually they value the information far more. the music, the books, or even a valuable word from a more experienced man. this is what I see. my generation are getting more and more stupid each day, even though the useful information is here on the internet, but we are only the consumers who don’t know how to use.
at last I agree with the malfunction of our educational system, especially in my country Iran that totally sucks.
October 26th, 2013 at 8:10 am
Hi Andy
Your viewpoints toward education is totally true. Nowadays, advancing through years of formal education to higher levels might be considered as some kind of getting more acceptable social status rather than acquiring some basic practical knowledge.Most academic courses passed at universities are replete with some theoretical,dry concepts with no practical use in real life.It is no wonder that at times finding some information on net sounds like to be more valuable and beneficial in terms of time, money, quality and practical use.”Skill” for doing specific job is something that might not be acquired through the net, but doesn’t seem to be learned properly at academic milieu, either.
October 26th, 2013 at 8:31 am
actually I disagree with you Andy. I think get information from people and from Internet it is a big difference. Of course with internet it is faster and you have a lot of informations you have a choise, but get it from real person it is more comfortable for me. I don’t know how explain but …it is a reaol person you can speak and see emotions and so on. I understand that the internet became big part of ours life and wiil take more soon, but I think never replace real person)) may I am wrong, who knows
October 26th, 2013 at 11:28 am
The point is that you may not become master person in your career without education. What makes a university student a professional is that he knows every aspect of his or her profession very well. Learning basics, improving knowledge and then becoming professional are the steps that take for example a doctor should go through.
The other point is that you cannot become professional in every field using internet because it takes you time. Also you cannot find every thing in internet. To clear this I give you a simple example. For instance websites may have information about law but they have not information about routines and how they will applied by the court mostly. On the other hand making knowledge applicable is a time consuming process.
October 26th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
hi there
first of all I wanna thank you for your topics but I wanna say that this is the first time I’m writing a comment so please forgive my gooves, I don’t want to be a goof maker at all. I wanna ask you some questions:
1. how can we depart from the “‘d” as a short form of had and would in a sentence as you read it fast
2. you wrote beliefs, shouldn’t we say it as believes?
thanks
October 27th, 2013 at 4:01 am
Internet is very useful for education, but it’s also very dangerous to overvalue it. Especially in the area of medical care…
October 27th, 2013 at 11:44 am
[...] I’m partly kidding, but also partly serious… Read my last blog to see what I think I’m right about. [...]
October 27th, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Yes, Andy. Absolutely agree. But the importance of formal education is in socializing. Developing in society is vital! So education should be shrinked, really distinguished by interests and of coarse – updated)
Roma/Belarus
October 28th, 2013 at 6:43 pm
internet is just a kind of technology,so its only a means of transferring information.but the information itself is important.
I think there is one point that is neglected ,in future we may have schools that teach students via internet.it means both internet as a means of technology and schools as an instructional system has its own value.
October 29th, 2013 at 7:58 am
I totally agree with you,the question is telling itself:Is the majority of people are using internet well”improving his life”?I don’t think so…….I hope i will be wrong.I really want to thank all people who work for others ,it’s normal they should be payed.Unfortunately we haven’t the same chance to get access to all things we want .Many factors let one learn more than another one.
thanks for Andy and his brother and also Mr A J Hogue.
November 1st, 2013 at 4:38 pm
hey there!
first of all i’m so pleased that you are this much caring about daily-life issues that looks unimportant to most of people. but i’m afraid to tell you that i totally disagree with you. while we have an amazing ,tremendous and wonderful data bank on the internet,most of people ,by nature, have tendency to utilize useless parts.that is , most of people dont know (and are not eager to know) the best way to use the internet.besides you are totally ignoring the significant impact of gathering and being together in procedure of learing. it has happen to most of us,occasionally that we had seen something new on the internet or in books but we havnt learnt it because of being alone in learning that.
accept my apologies for being this much straight forward in stating my opposing views
November 23rd, 2013 at 11:39 pm
good good
January 7th, 2014 at 6:59 pm
I do agree with you, internet can help us in so many levels, but there is another problem usually associated with internet and that’s addiction to it. nowadays plenty of other entertaining websites are available that we want to spend so much time in them like facebook. it just waste our time. its fun and we enjoy connecting with so many people at the same time and in an easy way but still it has its own deterring effect on our life.
Any love reading your blog. thank you.