What You Know Is What You Are

[Lightning Rod]

http://www.library.uthscsa.edu/

What You Know Is What You Are
for release 09-25-07
Washington DC
by Lightning Rod


My grandfather once told me, "It's not how MANY people you know, it's WHO you know." He was talking in terms of success in life. Like many things my grandfather said to me, his wisdom has been endorsed by my experience.

This truth applies to information as well as to personal relationships. It's not how MUCH you know, it's WHAT you know. That's why the model of the Renaissance Man has given way to the model of the Specialist.

My grandfather also advised me: "Find one thing that you love to do and do it better than anybody in the world and you will be happy and successful."

So far in my life I haven't been too successful in following that sage advice. I'm too much of a Renaissance Man and not enough of a Specialist. I do well at Jeopardy but practical skills many times elude me. I know a little about everything and a lot about nothing. Call it intellectual ADD or maybe I'm just a dilettante.

But I keep asking questions. I ask myself, "why does someone who can hit home runs or slam-dunk a basketball makes more money than god, while a fireman or a fisherman or a school teacher can't make ends meet?"

I ask myself, "Why do people who push pixels earn more than people who push wheelbarrows?" Wheelbarrows are much heavier than pixels.

I ask myself, "Why is the occupation of poet or philosopher worth less than that of a politician or a physician or a psychologist?"

These are foolish questions of course.

The marketplace doesn't favor hard work, it favors hard cash and connections and it favors smart work. It's not how much you know, it's what you know. If you know programming language, you are worth more than if you know bricklaying. If you understand personal injury law or hedge funds then you haul down much more cash than if you understand Shakespeare or Hegel. If you know the mechanics of international currency, you get paid more than if you know the mechanics of a Toyota engine. In an information society it's only natural to have an intellectual elite. Those with the intelligence or the access to intelligence are the ones who prosper and wield power. Hard information trumps hard work every time.

But it requires hard work to obtain knowledge, information, intelligence. It doesn't come cheap either. Just ask anybody with a student loan.

Our country is spending three-quarters of a billion dollars every day on the Iraq war because of a paucity of knowledge, information and intelligence. We hear presidential candidates who voted us into that war saying, "If I had only known then what I know now...."

The Poet's Eye sees that Grandpa was right--it's WHO you know and WHAT you know that counts.

Now I wish I could write you a melody so plain
That could hold you dear lady from going insane
That could ease you and cool you and cease the pain
Of your useless and pointless knowledge--Bob Dylan

[stilltrucking]

reminds me of this bit from Catch 22

"Orr was an eccentric midget, a freakish, likeable dwarf with a smutty mind and a thousand valuable skills that would keep him in a low income group all his life..."
McJob Page

Good Eye
thanks

[jimboloco]

it was also said of Hillarious,
that she had no clue that Dumbya waz gonna use that authority?
at least she now says that he does cowboy diplomacy
and is wondering how to keep him from shooting up Iran
at least

I heard Alan Greenspan on Democracy Now on Monday answering a question from Amy Goodwoman
she asked him how the cost of the Iraq War will impact on the solvency of social security
He said, like, that SS was already headed for trouble due to demographics

I think he is either dense or smart enough to dodge the question

and he also said the way to get more educated technical workers here in America is to import them. Never mind the dulled masses.

Now Dumsfeld is gonna be a teaching fellow at Stanford?
With a rabid president of Columbia U and Dumsfeld ranting doubletalk at Stanford, Condi Rice's old dominion, where she was a provost I think I wonder if an elitist dumbocracy is infact being set up. Some educational dominion to reinforce the hallowed boardrooms for the wealthy elite, Paris Hilton notwithstanding.

At least some of the slam dunkers in basketball are reinvesting into their home communities.

I gotta use my cognitive abilities to keep myself outa an existential funk.
I been thru th deeps, already know that, how about th ups.

My grandfather was a conservative, didn't like my contrariness, never taught me nothing. I have learned more from L Rod's gramps today. :>)

I'm gonna get a George W Bush voodoo doll and stand it on it's head in a corner.
Visualise that.

• 

..."he could engross himself in an inconsequential task for hours without growing restless or bored, as oblivious to fatigue as the stump of a tree."

like ya said, it's n who ya knowww

[Arcadia]

interesting image, I was entretenida for some minutes trying to localize my headaches !!

you had a very wise grandfather, l-rod!!!