People always differ on knowledge gained from experience or knowledge gained from books is more important. Some people claim that knowledge gained from experience is more important, others maintain that knowledge gained from books is very important. Everyone has his/her own preference, but as far as I am concerned knowledge gained from books must always be complemented by knowledge gained from experience, and of the two, the latter is certainly more important.
The first and most important reason is that knowledge gained from experience is applied knowledge, while knowledge gained from books is theoretical knowledge. We could get theories, formulas and principles, which tell us how things are supposed to work. But whatever you do, actual experience can help you to fully understand how to do something better. No one learned to swim by just reading a book. You must actually swim in the water, to know how to swim by your hands and legs and how to breathe when you swimming, for which the answers were not in the books.
The second reason knowledge gained from books is changeless, but we face with protean problems. What we gain from books cannot solve everything happened in our whole life, so after we study several basic theories from books, we also need study during the process that we try our best to do something, which means we should pay much attention to the knowledge gained from experience. As I learned to do metalworking, during my actual working I find several simple and convenient methods to make my works look nicely, which I could not find in the books.
The last reason why knowledge gained from experience is more important than book knowledge is that all new inventions and all new technologies do not come from books, but from experience and experiments. What is contained in the books is just old knowledge, but that which has not yet been crated and invented only exist in the process which is also called experience.
In conclusion, although the knowledge gained from books is important, which can provide us a basic foundation for learning, the things enable us to really know how to do thing better is what we gained from experience. During our life we must face and resolve the problems which were not covered in the books. Furthermore, it is impossible for us to crate and invent new things just by use the information we got from books. |