Too many books, even 3000 years ago
Published: Wed, 08/14/19
When I was a child my parents bought me a set of the Britannica Junior Encyclopedia. This resource came in (as I recall) 13 hardback volumes together with its own little wooden shelf. I don’t think it was just meant to be mine, I have a younger brother and sister who used it sometimes, I suspect my father referred to it sometimes too. There were quite a lot of other books in the house too and our local library was literally around the corner and I made good use of my ticket. I probably can’t claim to have read all of those encyclopedias but I certainly used them a lot and learned a great deal from them. It was also unusual for me not to have at least one book drawn out of the library. Talking of libraries, one of the most depressing experiences of my life was having an hour or two in the library at Camberley Staff college, probably one of the best military book collections in the world, maybe the best, who can tell? I did look at
a few interesting books and realised that even if I spent a year in that environment I would only read a fraction of it. (What was I doing there? That is a long story, but suffice to say that it was before the internet finally drowned us in information a few years later.)
Even in those pre-digital times I grew up with access to a lot of information. Mainly books, watching some educational programmes on the TV and I seemed to know a lot of adults who were usually happy to answer my questions and share their experiences and knowledge. I even went to school, which in retrospect seems to have been my least useful resource, but I must have learned something useful there. (Okay I did, the design and technology department were really good and, you may have heard this before, my school quite unintentionally provided me with my first year of martial arts teaching from an excellent instructor in George Mayo. Apart from that I guess they must have tried to teach me something but once I had learned to read at around eight years old I much preferred teaching myself, or at least choosing my teachers as I needed them, than being processed through the school system. From an academic point of view this may not have
been a good thing in that I didn’t get the best grades at O and A level and then get into a top university. (Although later I did get A levels, a degree and a post graduate qualification.) On the other hand my education did not start and stop with the academic system and continues to this day. The coming of the internet was a source of even more distraction while providing access to unlimited information. I am still trying to work out if this has been a good or bad thing. Then again, 400 years ago the printing press deluged the world (relatively speaking) with printed books and maybe 3000 years ago the writer of the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes complains: ‘Of making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.’ (Chapter 12 v 12). And when you have packed up and moved as many books as I own you can sympathize with him.
Information is important and useful, but it is just a tool. What you actually create with a tool is much more important than the tool itself. When I go out to do a job then the most important thing is taking the right tools in good working order. I keep checking that what is in my tool boxes is actually necessary and needed and I regularly take out tools that I don’t actually use often, if at all. If I don’t do this then I won’t be able to find the tools I do need in the box and I will strain myself lifting the box. Information can become a similar burden especially if we keep learning more and more about a subject and don’t actually do anything with the knowledge we are gaining.
This is a fundamental problem in martial arts too where most styles teach far too much but don’t do nearly enough with it in terms of developing real understanding of principles. On the other hand students are always wanting to learn something new and different rather than realising that real development comes from seriously practising what they already know.
If you are not making real progress in whatever direction matters to you then stop looking for more information. Chances are you already know ten times more than you actually need about your subject, just do something with it. What happens when you do need to know more? I will deal with that tomorrow.
regards
Graham
PS I am going to Fightcamp on Friday morning for three days of HEMA activity. Don’t tell anyone, but I am not going there to learn anything new. I am going to practice stuff that I mainly already know but don’t get a chance to use that often. If someone does show me something that fills a gap in my knowledge I will be suitably grateful, but it does not matter either way.
PPS On the 7th of September in Beverley I will be teaching all you really need to know about using a staff. See the page here http://iceandfire.org.uk/train.html