Useless Knowledge

Knowledge is useless if it’s never applied to anything. And if you do use that knowledge, its value is contingent on how well you use it. You can get a hundred degrees and if you never use them then they are all pointless. It doesn’t matter how much information you’ve stored in your brain or how many facts you know. It’s just information. Until it’s applied it’s just that, information.

For instance, we all know that person who knows all the stats for baseball. Knows all about each team’s most famous players, game scores, years they were founded, how many owners they’ve had etc. It’s what they obsess over, and in many cases it’s all they talk about. But what does that knowledge gain them? Not much if anything other than getting invited to trivia night as the sports info guy. He still works his 9-5, supports his family, and lives his life, but ultimately he does nothing with that knowledge. 

Then there’s the guy who knows all that same information, but he decided to use it for his benefit. This is the guy who took that knowledge and opened up a sports memorabilia shop. He started buying and selling baseball cards, autographed balls and bats, jersey’s, ect, and turned it into a business that supports him and his family in excess.

To many people, that knowledge is useless, but when you figure out a way to apply that knowledge, it becomes an advantage. He took the information he had learned and used it to form a small business.

And there are some of those who will study in depth subjects that many others deem of great use, but they never use the knowledge themselves, such as the armchair occultist. There are many who research hermeticism, rootwork, astrology, numerology, wichcraft, and other subjects that are considered “hidden knowledge”, will think it’s legitimate, but never apply it, not even to write a book of their own on the information they study so much. Many people know a lot about ceremonial magick, but have never (consciously) cast a spell. Many have studied numerology, but don’t utilize the right days to pay bills for better results, or they still propose or plan to get married on days that are detrimental to relationships. 

Also, in today’s world there’s a pressure to learn as much information as you can, that you’ll never need. A great example of this is in the American university system, where the first two years are required for general studies courses. While this requirement might be great for those students who don’t really know what they want to focus on and major in, it’s a waste of money, and more importantly time, for those who already know what areas they want to specialize in.

In fact, burdening yourself with gathering information you don’t need can bog you down in life. This was a belief held by Henry Ford, who never attended high school, yet built one of the most successful companies known, Ford Motor Company. If he was presented with an issue that he didn’t himself have all the facts about he pushed one of many buttons on his desk to summon someone employed by him who knew what he needed to know and relay it to him so he could make an informed decision. He knew what was important to his business and success, and focused his own personal knowledge on that, and sourced out the rest.

Almost 20 years ago, I gained a lesson that has stuck with me ever since. In a class I was taking the professor had various posters all over the walls of the subject matter of his course. The information contained dates, events, geography, traditions, even translations. While taking an exam, one of my classmates got up, went to one of these posters, then went back and finished taking the exam. The next time the class met the professor pointed out the actions of my classmate.

My professor told us that he never took down any of those posters that might contain information on an exam because knowledge isn’t always the information you retain in your mind to answer a question, but rather it is often knowledge of where and how to find the answers you need. The same concept Henry Ford used. You don’t have to have all the answers, you just have to know where to find them.

Now after saying all of this, I’m not trying to say that having a lot of information on a subject you’re fascinated with is bad. We all have interests we’re drawn to. There’s nothing wrong with that. I have a lot of information about R. A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt novels noodling around in my head because I love the stories and the characters so much. It’s not information that will ever do me much, if any good, but it’s still there. Just like there are countless Civil War or World War 2 buffs out in the world that are vast wealths of knowledge in those arenas. We all have those subjects and topics that fascinate us.

The point I’m trying to make in his article is that one should make sure they study and accrue important knowledge that they can use to their advantage, actually apply it to their advantage, know how to find that knowledge, and when there’s something outside your realm of expertise, know how and where to find that knowledge as well when needed instead of stressing to memorize all that you can in subjects you’ll never use. Knowledge is only useful when you can find it and when you properly apply it.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have an enlightening day.