“Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature?”
Not just a quote from Hannibal Lecter and Markus Aurelius but a useful tidbit of advice. I think it’s the one question that all college professors should strive to implant into their students minds. Unfortunately in today’s career driven college environment it’s often overlooked and passed by in order to instill “useful” lessons and information into a student’s mind.
Something that I see at work, in my off time and in my interactions on a daily basis is that people can identify the end goal and what they want but not how to get there or even where to begin.
At work I see clients who want to find gold, or oil, or manage forests or farms using satellite imagery. A good solid goal. But then you ask them how are they going to use the satellite imagery to do that and they get a blank look on their faces. When you ask them if they even know what information a satellite image can provide and how that can be leveraged to get to their goal and then they really get bewildered.
I’ve had acquaintances ask me if an adjustable rate mortgage would be a good option to buy a house. I ask them if they know the initial interest rate would be and how it will adjust over time and how much are they putting down and what are the other terms of the loan and they get a confused and persecuted look in their eyes.
I understand that you want a house but shouldn’t you make an effort to understand the loan that you will be dealing with for the next 15 to 30 years?
Goals are fine. Goals are great. They give us a direction to go and something to shoot for. But before we get there shouldn’t we know something about the road that we’re traveling on?
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