Some things accumulate slowly, and if one hasn't built reserves of them in advance then when crisis time comes it's too late. Airspeed and altitude in a plane, for example, or musical skill earned from long hours of practice before a performance. Knowledge is like that. Studying puts money in the bank; if you've done your homework, when the test arrives your savings (plus accrued interest) will be able to pay the bills. And this isn't just in school — it's throughout life.
The Learning Organization" is a popular cliché these days. To really have an agile and creative enterprise, however, takes a serious investment. People need time, probably a minimum of four hours per week, to get out of their daily grind and study something new, something that will turn out to be important next year or next decade. It's a delusion to expect productivity without putting that money in the bank. Alas, few outfits are wise enough to do it.
Friday, February 11, 2000 at 05:45:35 (EST) = 2000-02-11
(correlates: WayAhead, NegativeResults, TemporalUtilitarianism, ...)