Whats Important in Life

In the journey of one's life what is more important, the accumulation of knowledge, or the accumulation of experiences?

 

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Can we have both...

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It's kind of, (to me), the combination of "Only the educated are free"- (Epictetus) and the journey thing. And I am fond of, (and enjoy) people.

 

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To learn from the mistakes of others, you need knowledge.
But to know what do not is not enough.
To know what to do need to have experience and knowledge.

 

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The accumulation of MONEY!

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With that you can have many experiances and gain knowledge as well.

 

Knowledge is aquired through experience. Otherwise what we call knowledge is really only heresay, an idea, or a theory.

 

I would say to have knowledge but plenty of life experiance to go with it.

 

Doesn't it ultimately come down to what Curly from City Slickers said? It's that "one thing" that you eventually (if you're lucky, I suppose) discover that makes you understand what is absolutely important in life.

It took me a while to figure out what it is most important for me. At least, we'll see what the PowerBall has to say about it all this weekend.

 

Whats important in my life is exploration and the gathering of knowledge. I find it very hard to stay in one place.

 

Recently I've started to question the value of knowledge. There are so many well educated and knowledgable people that go through life suffering because the can't seem to learn from experience. There are so many people that have never been to college, coudn't care less about reading books, that are successful and happy through their entire lives because they gather information from their experience, and the experiences of people around them.

I'd rahter accumulate experience than knowledge.

 

The accumulation of experience is the accumulation of knowledge, but the accumulation of knowledge is not the accumulation of experience. To illustrate


I can have the knowledge from reading a book that;

But it is not until I hold a rose in my hand, felt the petals, pricked by finger, smelt the scent that I really Know a rose.


I can have the knowledge from reading a book that;

But it is only when I bite into a tomato, taste and smell it that I really Know tomato.

Of course these examples are simple and maybe pointless, but the same applies to more complex life issue, say childbirth or drug addiction….

 

An interesting point I was wondering about myself.
Why the need for a hierarchy?

And while we're at it, what is meant by "important"?

 

Whichever you value more (assuming you value one above the other of course). Keep in mind that importance doesn't objectively exist. It is confined to your mind.

 

We obviously all gain both types of knowledge in varying proportions through our lives. The proportion varying sometimes by conscious choice and sometimes by circumstance, some are more inclined to an experiential life and others prone to knowledge accumulation. I am not suggesting that the proportion of one has a direct ratio effect on the proportion of the other.

It is true that there is no absolute must, the question is rather to which is one most inclined. Would a left brain / right brain split between the two be expected?

The “important” is the subjective view in others minds of their perception of the two. Which of the two would people value as being beneficial to themselves or to society. The original question left quite open to see what came back..

 

I agree. Many though would argue that the accumulation of factual knowledge is objective and therefore more valid then the subjective experiences of ones mind.

 

Nothing is really important, importance is just a personal preference, it can be whatever.

 

Your brain representing information (knowledge in this case) is quite objective as you pointed out. "More valid" or "important" are still entirely subjective however so the answer will always be "whatever you want".

 

Again, why the need for a hierarchy?
Why must one choose?
You're setting the two options up as if they're mutually exclusive, which is fallacious.

 

Knowing that there's always someone smarter than you are out there.

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In my life I generally say experiences. I much more prefer to visit a country then read about what that experience would be like. Reading about sitting in an onsen is never going to replace sitting in an onsen

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