BENJAMIN P. Hardy’s article on goal setting and the mindless consumption of information is interesting and timely at this period when there is too much information around us, trying to penetrate our consciousness on a daily basis. It’s on TV, the Internet, on the radio, our phones, the streets and highways, our workplace, schools, entertainment centers, everywhere. Yet, Hardy and several other great thinkers are asking the hard questions: How do we choose which materials to read? Why are we collecting that particular information? What is the purpose to our learning?
Just a few weeks ago, I noticed online an open invitation to join an international book exchange. If you’re “in,” you will have to send one book to someone, and get a number of books in return, mailed to you from people down the line. It seemed like an interesting prospect, but it doesn’t give you much choice about what titles to receive, read and spend hours of your life on. Come to think of it, are we even conscious and purposeful about the kind of information that we allow into our lives?
Hardy argues that “people now learn because they think it will automatically make them successful, but reading lots of books will [only] help one become successful if one already has a compelling reason to gain that learning…without that reason and without a target, learning will be distractive and directionless.” People are caught in the web of “ever learning” or information-addiction, he says, but are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
This idea is also best applied in the field of education, in the kind of information we feed our students and our children. Does it constitute true learning? That is knowledge that is not just information per se, but wisdom that will allow us to handle the realities of life, to change our behavior so that we can change our situation for the better, to help in solving the problems in the communities we live in. He says that one could learn more about oneself in five minutes embracing one’s fears than one could by reading 100 books. Practice is
essential, not only theory. That’s doing and thinking, not just reading and consuming.
It is important, for example, to start teaching our children and students the ways to gain more wisdom so they can think better and face the challenges of this world with a better chance of winning. We say the world is changing and that we must keep up to survive. This is one of the basics —help people think well so they can create solutions. To do that, we need to be conscious about the things we pursue. We need to be clear about what really matters.
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I would like to invite you all to Chance Encounters, a group art exhibit featuring the works of Fitz Herrera, Louie Ignacio, Sio Montera, Cid Reyes, Fred Tan, Oliver Ortega and yours truly. Opening reception is happening on October 7 at 4 p.m. at Galerie Francesca Alabang. The complete address is Unit 3319, 2nd Level Festival Mall Expansion Wing, Civic Drive, Filinvest Corporate City Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Curated by Ricky Francisco, the show will run until October 21. I hope that you can come visit the art exhibit.