Why experience is the best teacher

Hey,

I hope you’ve been well. I haven’t written in a bit.

I’m grateful for the beautiful gift of life and I hope you are doing okay, regardless of the current situations life is throwing at you.

Life is a duality. It wouldn’t be life if we had only one experience of one thing. I’m learning that internalizing this concept makes it easier to navigate whatever life throws at me.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy always.

Is there a difference between knowing of something and truly experiencing it? Which one of them would you prefer?

If you think about yourself and your life. For the things that you’re curious about or interested in, how many of them fall into the category of ‘things you know of’ and ‘things you’ve truly experienced’?

There was a young teenage boy called Dami. From a young age, Dami was intrigued by bees. The structure of their society, hierarchy, dances, nectar collection and honey creation etc. Dami lived in the city however and he could only learn more about these through books, videos and other channels.

One day, he went on a road trip to the countryside with his parents. There was an apiary in the village and for the first time, he saw bees in real life. During the experience, he got to taste honey as well. When he did, an explosion of sweetness, rich, lingering, unlike anything he had ever experienced, filled his senses. It wasn't just a taste; it was an experience.

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Let’s think through Dami’s story. Before he got to actually taste ‘honey’, he could only understand it through words and any other descriptors he had encountered. After tasting it though, when he thinks of what ‘honey’ truly is, what does he remember? The word or the actual taste of honey that his very being can remember?

My guess is the latter.

Let’s explore another example. Think of the art of pottery. We all know they use clay and similar materials and that it is a beautiful process that produces beautiful outputs.

I have never actually done pottery before. However, I could go on Google and learn all about it. Watch videos, read about its history, how the machines work etc. This would bring me to the point where I ‘know of’ pottery. I could even get a certificate for it.

All of this however would pale in comparison to the actual act of doing it. If I went to a workshop where pottery was done and I spent hours moulding clay and creating things myself (no matter how much I suck at it), when I think of pottery afterwards, it’s embedded into my being. Not just my memory.

(Image source)

We live in a society today that places a premium on the ‘knowledge of’ things and not a lot on the actual experience of things. We are incentivized to memorize as many labels or identifiers as possible. You walk/drive down a road every week and I could bet that you can label everything on your street.

The trees. The flowers. The pavement. The gates in front of houses. The cars parked on the roadside. The birds in the sky. And more.

Once you can label something, it feels like the job is done. You now know it and you can continue in the pursuit of acquiring as many labels as possible. And in the academic, career or entrepreneurial path, you can try to become a master of a few things as much as possible.

If we look back at the honey example though, of all the things you know of and are interested in, how many have you truly experienced? In my case, the ratio is small. As someone who was always told “I’m smart”, there’s always been a priority on knowing of as many things as possible.

The legendary saying that “Experience is the best teacher” is often used in the context of us learning from a mistake. If we look at it differently though, it is so profound. The best teacher of anything in this world we live in is experience. The person who becomes a master at ‘knowing of’ something will never come close to the person that experiences it, even if it’s for a short experience.

(How do you find what’s behind the door? By going through the door)

In the realm of the mind, we dissect, analyze, and label. We put things into neat little boxes labelled with words. But in doing so, we limit ourselves. We reduce the grandeur of life into a lexical lexicon, substituting a symphony of experiences with a thesaurus of words.

“The menu is not the meal." We might know the description of a dish, its ingredients, its nutritional value, but until we take that first bite, we do not truly know it.

When we think about experiences, things that often come to mind as the grand things: Travelling, skydiving, bungee jumping, visiting popular sites and similar things that have been sold to us as the premium experiences.

I think these are too grandeur and there are so many simple things in our lives and immediate environments that we don’t truly know. Everything in this world is unique. Things might look similar but they’re all unique. And as humans, we are all unique as well.

Spend some time truly looking at the leaves on the trees close to you. Observe the patterns, the branches, the stems, how they dance in the wind etc. Watch the ants as they go about their activity. Treat yourself to a beautiful view of the birds in the sky. Take a look at your couch, all of its patterns, styling and more. Take a closer look at your carpet. Observe the sheer beauty of your loved ones. Don’t rush to label, truly observe and aim to experience as many things around you as possible.

The best people to learn this from are kids. Before we brainwash them with words, education and the knowledge of labels, they seek out ‘truly experiencing’ things. They’ll put everything in their mouth. They’ll watch their environment intently. That’s why we say that children exhibit a 'wonder' about life.

This wonder never goes away. We just use labels to cloud them and teach people that the label is more important than the actual thing.

We’re on this earth for such a short time. If you think about the possibility of all the things you could truly experience, it is endless. And each true experience brings so much satisfaction and fulfilment to your very being. I think the least we can do is aim to truly experience things we’re curious about while we’re here.

Yes, we can't experience everything and some things would cause harm to ourselves and others. I'm not referring to the extremes, let's even start with the basics. Truly experience the simple things of your life and if you're curious about something you can truly experience, go for it.

Dive deep into the grand ocean of life, not as a scholar studying the water from the shore, but as a diver, immersing wholly and completely into its depths.

Christie Applegate

Update: 2024-12-02

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