Big Think, Big Opinions
Jul 7th, 2008 by Roxana
If 5min had Andie Anderson, the character played by Kate Hudson in the chic flick “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days”, we wouldn’t only have a How Not To video filled with tips on what not to do to keep a man for more than a week, but we would also have studios such as the BigThink ones. Because we’re NOT Composure magazine, we would let our How To Girl write –or in this case, broadcast- about anything that she wanted, meaning globalization, inspiration, or religion.
Andie Anderson would definitely enjoy these studios, where people express their opinions about different topics and leave open discussions for you to think and decide.
One of these experts is Moby, the pop-animal-rights-fighter-dj-eco-friendly-star. According to what he says, opinion is directly related to experience, and therefore, someone’s opinion on something that he or she hasn’t lived can’t be trusted.
Experience is a tricky word, as there are many sides for the same experience. And it condemns me and Miss Anderson to write about shoes, or about how to lose a guy in 10 days, as neither of has been in Darfur. For me, experience isn’t only about living, but also listening to different opinions, and for that, BigThink is an excellent point to start from. Even when the opinion is that we can’t have an opinion on that.
Your grandparents may perhaps have been short on book smarts (“knowledge”) but long on wisdom. In an “information age,” technology cannot confer wisdom: wisdom takes more time to develop and cultivate than even knowledge does (how many people do you know with advanced degrees who lack wisdom or wise judgment?). For this reason, wisdom is at an even higher premium, perhaps, than it has ever been, and when you find a good, credible source of wisdom (a person) who can help you make good judgments and grow your own store of wisdom, that’s a relationship to build and hold firm. This is why really good mentoring is so valuable, and why the most effective executives and leaders are extremely adept at understanding other people. Wisdom combines the seasoned experience of connecting and reviewing bodies of knowledge, together with a genuine grasp of human nature and the ways of the world, to allow for the proper use of data, information and knowledge. Wise people, therefore, cultivate connections with other wise people or reliable knowledge experts, because this is the ost effective way to leverage and benefit from vast stores of knowledge in this “information age.”
All my best to you and your wisdom
Dennis Bartram