Over the years, there have been a strong debate when it comes to the topic Knowledge Vs Experience and that has really sparked a lot of discussions among people in different aspect of life. Talking about knowledge, I will say it helps to give the view of theoretical understanding that either we can achieve from books, from research's and generally education.
But when we talked about experience, this is talking about the aspect of the practical skills. Over the years of engaging in these two topics, I discovered that both of them are actually very important both for your personal development and also for professional developments rather but most of the time, they serve different purposes.
[Image Source](Understanding the Power of Knowledge and Experience)
Now moving to the topic for today and comparing both of them. Let me first start by talking a bit about knowledge. Knowledge as it were I will say is the foundation upon which experience is most of the time built. Knowledge comprises of a lot of things like principles, like facts and even insights. There are several means I have acquired knowledge over the years. Take for example, I am an engineering student, I can actually get the principles of engineering either from my engineering textbooks.
Knowledge is really quite very important because most of the time, it gives us the solution to be able to handle challenges. In fact I have come to discover that in many professions, formal knowledge is really necessary. Before you can become a doctor, you must have study about either diseases, their treatment and many more before you can be qualified to practice medicine and same thing applies to architect. If you want to be an architect, you must have learnt about the way structures are constructed before you can design a building.
But one of the things I have learnt about knowledge is the fact that it also has it's own limitations. What do I mean by that? If you are not able to apply what you have learnt, the knowledge you got can remain abstract. Take for example a student like me who understands the theory about engineering. But that is not enough, if I did not apply it in real world projects, my understanding might not be complete.
And that is where the beauty of experience comes in. For me, I will define experience as the knowledge we gained from action. Experience can give you quality informations and knowledge that even textbooks might not be able to give you. Well in my little understanding, I strongly believe that experiences teach us lessons that even formal education might not be able to give us.
If you find yourself in fields that demands problem solving, the value of experience is really needed. Take for example again, if you are a pilot, even though you are able to learn about the principles of flying an aircraft either in your lecture room as astronaut, but that is not enough. You will be able to handle emergency situations why flying actual planes. The same thing applies to entrepreneurs, you can only get quality knowledge about how to run a business when you run a business also. There is a way experience offers you this type of knowledge that is quite difficult to even explain because those types of knowledge comes from the year of practice.
Considering both of them, I will establish that both of them are really important and in fact should actually compliment each other. Since knowledge gives us the theoretical foundation we want, then experience can give us this practical skills and insights and when at the end of the day we combine both together, it will be very powerful. You must make sure that you did not depend on knowledge alone and you must not also depend on your experience also. As you are pursuing after knowledge, also find a way of always applying that knowledge you have. The more you engage in experience, the more knowledge you keep getting that keeps making you wise.
That's why we need to strike the balance between both. I have seen people who just depend on the one side of knowledge and didn't want to go after experience. If you are a young professional in different fields of your life, in as much as knowledge is great that you have gotten in that field of yours, you need to understand that you will need practical experience to thrives. When you are really able to combine both, you have a massive edge over others. It is not enough to get knowledge, also get experience and vice versa.