What You Know Is What You Are
Posted: September 25th, 2007, 3:29 pm
![Image](http://www.studioeight.tv/LR/poetseyelogo3.jpg)
![Image](http://www.library.uthscsa.edu/images/Phrenology10.jpg)
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