{"id":36455,"date":"2017-07-24T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T19:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=36455"},"modified":"2017-01-21T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T04:46:09","slug":"be-a-doer-not-a-thinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/24\/be-a-doer-not-a-thinker\/","title":{"rendered":"Be a Doer, Not a Thinker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dalat,
Dalat, 2016 \/ Photo by Cindy Nguyen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear friend, I wanted to write you a letter on the benefit of doing<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d rather than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thinking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t theorize<\/h2>\n

I see a lot of arm-chair philosophers, thinkers, and academics\u00e2\u20ac\u201d who simply analyze, theorize, and think. But many of these individuals do not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take risks. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have skin in the game. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t adventurers, soldiers, or knights \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who put their lives on the line. Rather, they are like sports commentators \u00e2\u20ac\u201d watching from the sidelines, and jabbering incessant noise.<\/p>\n

What is important in life<\/h2>\n

Life is all about making decisions, and doing<\/em>. Theories very rarely hold up for a long period of time. 99% of the scientific theories today probably won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist 100 years from now \u00e2\u20ac\u201d very much how 99% of scientific theories from 100 years ago aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t applicable today.<\/p>\n

Life is all about trial and error. About doing. About figuring things out by yourself. About breaking things, putting things back together, and re-arranging information, atoms, and molecules.<\/p>\n

We learn as we do. Every theory I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned in school, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve forgotten. But everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done by myself, I learn.<\/p>\n

Should we ever make a theory?<\/h2>\n

I think it is much better to create theories after<\/em> you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned by doing something, instead of following a theory to do something.<\/p>\n

To create a diagram, consider the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Learn by trial and error -> Create Theory<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    vs<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Learn theory -> Try to put into practice<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The second rarely works. The first usually works much better.<\/p>\n

      Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow the rules<\/h2>\n

      There is still a lot of truth for you to discover in the world. Why waste time learning what others have learned before you? Try your best to ignore advice, lessons, and theories from the past. Rather, test your own assumptions of reality. Figure out what works for you, and what doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work for you.<\/p>\n

      After you take a lot of risks, partake in trial-and-error, and make mistakes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d then try to create you own theories (after the fact). And then after you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent a lot of time tinkering on your own, then<\/em> try to read theories from others (and contrast your own theories with the theories of others).<\/p>\n

      The secret is to venerate and respect the past\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but not to be a slave to the past. To be inspired by the great thinkers, doers, and philosophers of the past. But not to be chained by them, and follow them blindly.<\/p>\n

      Always learn by doing<\/h2>\n

      When in doubt, try it for yourself. If you ever smell bullshit, test out your own assumptions. Find out what works for you.<\/p>\n

      Always,
      \nEric<\/p>\n

      Learn more:\u00c2\u00a0Philosophy ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Dear friend, I wanted to write you a letter on the benefit of doing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d rather than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thinking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t theorize I see a lot of arm-chair philosophers, thinkers, and academics\u00e2\u20ac\u201d who simply analyze, theorize, and think. But many of these individuals do not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take risks. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have skin in the game. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/20161213-PC130103-2eric-kim-street-photography-dalat.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}