Practical Knowledge is far better than academic knowledge - 5 absolute reasons

 1) You will not be afraid of losing your job to a machine.

 

2) Your judgment and imagination will expand tremendously. This expansion may seem like a waste of time or an unnecessary diversion, but it is actually essential for humanity's development and progress.

 

3) You won't need to go through the painful process of changing professions in your prime.

 

4) Develops your sense of philosophy.

 

5) You won't be afraid to take up any challenge that comes your way, whether or not it's in your job description.

 

The above are some reasons why practical knowledge is important for us students and working professionals. Let me explain each point -

 

1)     You will not be afraid of losing your job to a machine.

This may sound ludicrous, but it's actually true. The day is not very far when the computer industry will give salaries that are comparable to what even doctors and engineers make. By then, it will become an issue for companies to decide who do they want in their company; a human being or a robot. So, if you have practical knowledge of computers and coding, then you won't be afraid when the time comes because, at least in theory, even a computer will need support from several humans to run smoothly!

 

2) Your judgement and imagination will expand tremendously.

This expansiveness may seem like a waste of time or an unnecessary diversion, but it is actually essential for humanity's development and progress.

One of the best ways to expand your mind and imagination is to experiment with things. And when you try to experiment by yourself in a lab or in a kitchen or in any other practical environment, you will be much more comfortable because -

 

a) No one is going to scold you for wasting the expensive chemicals or utensils.

 

b) You can give your own conclusion about an experiment rather than resorting to following a prescribed theory in books.

 

c) This will make you more confident and if you want, you can take up another difficult experiment right after this. Now here, you will see that in the lab, you and your experiment were much more important than anything else.

d) Specifically when academic writings is the need, you must have academic as well as practical knowledge because both of them are useful while writing your assignments and essays.

 

Doing experiments in a school or college lab is one thing but doing it in your own house could be dangerous. So, I suggest you take up coding and make use of the internet to carry out simple experiments like using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor). In colleges, there are several practicals that get regularly held in almost all of the engineering colleges. So you can try reserving a slot for coding instead of going for something inferior and trivial, which is not going to give you any new knowledge about your stream.

 

3) You won't need to go through the painful process of changing professions in your prime.

 

This one is quiet obvious that you will require a certain amount of knowledge about your stream before you can think of branching into another field. So, this is where practical knowledge comes handy because it gives you a confidence and an assurance that even if things don't work out as planned, you could always switch to another field.

4) Develops your sense of philosophy.

Practical knowledge makes you more philosophical because you will see that everything has a solution and that there is always a way out or at least several ways out. This definitely takes away the fear of failure and inability, which is common among young minds who are unable to think beyond the realms of books.

 

5) You won't be afraid to take up any challenge that comes your way whether or not it's in your job description.

 

Asking "why" is our mother tongue. Unfortunately, most people lose this ability once they graduate because everything seems right and perfect, as per the book. But who decides? And how do they decide? In the practical world, nothing is right or wrong because it's you who can change things to suit your needs. Your code may be a complete mess, but it has a certain efficiency that makes up for its bad structure and design. So, giving a challenge to yourself will make you feel more confident about facing any challenge in future.

6) Increases your value both on the personal and professional front.

When you are free to choose between watching TV or studying, what would you choose? Obviously, most of us will say that we would rather watch some good cartoon than study for exams. However, if you compare watches with practical knowledge, then it has to be TVs because it's pure entertainment. But if you compare practical knowledge with academic learning, the latter will never stand a chance. You can't learn anything new without experimenting or trying out new things, and that's where practical knowledge comes into the picture!

If you don't like boring theory, then try something new like HTML or PHP coding.