Imagination

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
— Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

I am a huge fan of this statement. I believe that there is a lot there. The first thing that I think of is children. Children have awesome imaginations. They use them all the time, and they come up with new things to do, so much so, that when a little kid tries to explain what is in their mind to adults, a lot of times we as adults just can’t make sense of it. I see a limitation on the adult. We have developed the ability to not use our imaginations. I am not referring to the communication hang ups that kids have.

As adults I would say that we have more knowledge than children, which is not really a groundbreaking statement. But, children have a tremendous capacity to learn. As we grow older learning becomes seemingly harder. We run into this a lot with learning a second language. Kids seem to be able to adopt this language quickly. Adults, on the other hand, seem to struggle a bit more. With this capacity, children rapidly gain experience, which translates straight to knowledge that lasts lifelong.

If you were to have virtually no experience and a very low amount of knowledge, but a tremendous imagination I bet you would gain a whole lot of knowledge just from trying things. You would basically be a kid. Experts are never born as experts. They are just people who just keep trying, they pick up every stone they see to leave none unturned, and probably some twice. There is a story that Edison found 200 ways to not make a lightbulb, and one that worked. The imagination in 200 ways is pretty awesome. And at the end of his life, his knowledge of the light bulb was unmatched by anyone.

As adults, people just tell us what to do, and a lot of times we just accept that as gospel. Letting small opportunities for some imagination go away. Granted it is easier, but I would bare to say it comes at a greater cost.
I am guilty of not thinking I can do something just because of the knowledge I have, but with some tinkering and some imagination, and flipping over a few stones, some things begin to happen.

Give a thought to using that imagination you have. Its only yours, and we could use some more light bulbs.

 

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie