It's Often Better to Learn First and Act Later

in philosophy •  7 years ago  (edited)

In many situations, we can find ourselves faced with an issue or problem. There will be a need to do something in order to resolve the problem. We need to act.

But are we acting based on accurate understanding, in order to act properly and effectively? If we don't have enough knowledge and understanding about a situation, issue or problem, we can end up acting rashly and foolishly.

Time-Spent-On-Learning-vs.-Action.jpg

We are always acting on what we know. Before we can even act, we have to have knowledge. We must first have knowledge in order to act on that knowledge. Therefore, the quality of knowledge we have will affect and determine the quality of action we can engage in. Again, will it be the quality of a wise right-action, or will it be the quality of a foolish wrong-action?

We can always choose to act at any time, immediately. We don't need to spend much time waiting before we choose to act. But that doesn't allow us the time to understand our situation correctly and optimize effective action in the world.

In order to increase the likelihood of proper effective action, we must spend a certain amount time learning before we can act. This is the time spent where we seek to understand the situation, issue or problem in greater detail.

We do this by gaining more data/knowledge first, processing it in order to understand more, and this allows us to be wiser in our decisions and actions, as opposed to potentially being foolish and making the wrong choice or trying to fix a problem incorrectly.

Not every situation, issue or problem takes the same amount of time, but it's usually prudent to spend time learning, over a longer elapsed period of time as well. As we understand more about the world and ourselves, we will often require less and less time spent learning about something because there are many patterns that repeat. We can form connections/links between the new information or data about a situation and the past knowledge about situations we've already dealt with.

As we become wiser through dealing with situations, issues or problems, there is a more balanced feedback between the time we spend learning and the time we spend acting. We continue to learn as we do, but because we already have a significant repertoire of knowledge gained from our past experience, we can more quickly engage in proper effective action without foolish outcomes.


Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.


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Grandpa always said "Those who cannot listen, must feel." There is a lot of truth to the statement. What better way to learn than to listen. We have two eyes, two ears, two hands yet one tongue. What is our bodies telling us? Thanks @krnel

Hehe, nice analogy with the two vs. one ;)

@krnel sometimes we act without measuring the consequences of these will have.

Verbal errors often happen to us because we say things without thinking about the consequences they may have.  

Understanding this requires social awareness, which is the ability to capture the emotions and experiences of other people.  

TalentSmart has tested the emotional intelligence (EQ) of more than a million people and discovered that social awareness is a skill that many of us lack.

Indeed, we should think before we engage in the action of speaking too ;)

You're right, friend ..

I agree with you, Without knowing the subject matter, there is no way we can solve the problem. Science is the key to every problem, coupled with experience in dealing with and solving problems.
Surely it would be easier if the problem happened had happened before.

We could get wiser by acting foolishly and learning from our mistakes. Some actions cannot be based on learning, like falling in love for first time or eating Tacos for first time but by evaluating the outcome we can be wise next time. or not. Because sometimes we act on whims of chemicals that wants Tacos.

Yes, we often have to learn from mistakes, but as the title says its often better to learn first ;)

You are right, i we don't have the right knowledge about a particular topic, how we can react to that matter correctly?
we should get some knowledge about the topic and action will have some meanings.

Interesting its even in the word 'react'. Something I still need to master is allowing for that time lapse to take stock. A good timely reminder!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Re-act, as in act again or act in response to something else?

Thank you for the information you have shared

exactly, if you will not learn properly, you won't be able to act properly,

When we take time and effort to learn the result always show in our acting.

Great article, this is exactly what I am doing now. I'm learning as much as I can about steemit while writting articles on what i've learned. I haven't use the tag introducemyself yet, i think when i'm ready i will do it. I only been around 10 days on this platform.

I've seen this in action when people "help" others and their help does nothing or even hurt a person's situation. But they got their brownie points, or expect credit for having "good intentions".

Amazing read @krnel.

I'm glad I have found you!

Peace

Hehe, glad you enjoyed it :)