Educated, Lucky, Smart

The first few weeks of each semester sees college classes filled with hopeful students. By the sixth week, up to half have left, even from easy "survey" classes. Folks I talk to put a lot weight on "connections" and "lucky breaks" to account for success. Perhaps those who left school are counting on luck. Many speak with admiration of the successful, those who are "smart." It feels as if people have ceded a personal role in shaping their own destiny. The culture of "reality television" has lead to an unrealistic view of what it is to be educated, lucky or smart.

Educated
To be educated is a combination of: knowledge, a set problem solving strategies, and experience. One can be successful without school. But I would not recommend that course to anyone anymore, if it can be avoided. My Grandfather was an extremely well educated man by any standard, though he had little formal education. His education was self acquired. This is unusual and requires enormous self discipline. With all the things competing for attention today, self education is very difficult. It is also extremely inefficient.

Knowledge is acquired through school, books and media, and listening. There is a world of difference between reading a book, even carefully, and having someone explain the material to you. It is in the intricate nuances of a subject that underlie deep understanding. And the value in knowledge of a range of subjects cannot be overstated. Understanding of science and technology can provide an illuminating perspective on the course of history, aesthetics are well served when augmented with knowledge of engineering principles.

Problems solving strategies are the set of practiced approaches used to evaluate situations. These should be varied including practice in communication, mathematical and mechanical. Practicing at first by repetition, many people may find some tasks are easier than other. After the initial practice the goal should be to generalize the strategies across a variety of disciplines.

Experience is the practical application and combination of knowledge and problem solving. By exposure to many situations, facility in applying, generalizing and synthesizing solutions is improved.

To be educated is an iterative process, a constant life-long acquisition of more knowledge, more techniques and more experience through many means, school being but one.

Lucky
In the broadest sense, luck are those events that are unexpected or not precisely predictable. It may bring a good outcome or a bad one. Those people who are "lucky", in the good sense, are not just beneficiaries of good fortune. They have become educated at least to the extent to take advantage of the situations the present themselves.

Luck is, to some extent, within our influence. It is having the knowledge and foresight to place one self in the place and time at which one would expect a good outcome. You may not know which fish you will catch, but you know you are more likely to catch one in a forest stream than in the chlorinated swimming pool. The crucial point not to be overlooked is that the key to success is trying, trying often and continuously. If you don't go fishing you definitely won't catch any fish.

That said, the truly unexpected does occur, for good and ill. The educated person should have the insight to understand the difference between results acquired by skill and planning and those caused by random events. Acquiring education, by whatever means, is the preparation to best take advantage of good fortune when it appears, and to minimize bad fortune.

Smart
And so we arrive at "smart". That wonderful appellation that is bestowed on the best and brightest.
It is irresistible, after achieving some success, to consider oneself skillful, talented and smart. And sometimes it is well deserved. Be wary, give sufficient credit to good fortune. And remember that skill or success in one arena does not guarantee success in another.

It is of little use to try to "be smart". Smart is a trophy acquired after some accomplishment. The trick of it is to try to eliminate or stop those activities that turn out to be stupid or foolish. What ever is left, by process of elimination, will be smart.

To Be Ready
Skill and persistent work count for much but, as Louis Pasteur remarked "chance favors the prepared mind." The most important activities are the constant process of education and the embarkation on many adventures.
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