The Importance of Academic Thinkers

Posted by Ann on November 12, 2020

And there IS truth to that, a lot of truth. If you look at what many academics teach, it is laughable because it has not been forged in the fires of the real world.

But it IS a mistake to completely dismiss something that came from an academic out of hand. Sometimes good ideas do come from such professional thinkers, and it is up to us doers to test them in person and see if they have a place in the real world.

Like most ideas, they die when confronted with reality, then it’s time to move onto the next one. The issue with academics, of course, is their ideas are never confronted with reality so they come up with ideas based on untested ideas, leading to the whacked out teachings of some who have been sheltered from the world too long.

I make it a point to read a wide variety of material, some from street smart, battled hardened individuals (one of the best I’ve read lately is Delta Force Lt. Col. Pete Blaber’s, “The Men, The Mission, and Me) to kooky writers who do nothing but write for a living, reporting on what they observe, not what they experience.

When you read, the hardest thing to do is to keep yourself from constantly saying, “he’s right” or “he’s wrong,” as you read, usually based on your own prejudices. To truly learn, you have to set these aside and see if they work in the real world.

The great thing about attraction is, you get immediate feedback with the only downside being an ego bruise. If you read John Gray’s material (very difficult to read) then test it in the real world, you very quickly discover he’s clueless.

But, if you take some of the discoveries and observations from “A Billion Wicked Thoughts,” a book written by two data miners from MIT, you will get some good results, discovering that their observations do hold up in reality. That book is a perfect example of why you should open your mind to conclusions by academics, because it revealed some things about female behavior that are very applicable in the real world, things I never would have discovered had I stuck to purely experiential.

The successful man lives by “the principle of the slight edge,” meaning in everything he studies, he’s looking for something that will give him a tiny edge over everyone else. He know success comes from having lots of slight edges, not one huge edge and the only way to find those slight edges is by relentless study from multiple sources.

So, your reading/study list should skew more towards those who relay their experience, but don’t ever disregard the pure thinkers either. Sometimes you can change the world for good or bad with their ideas, and if you disregard them, you’ll never get them.

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The Importance of Academic Thinkers

The Importance of Academic Thinkers