Books and Practical Experience

Between books and practical experience, one is more likely to find gain more learning on the latter because there is nothing that compares to the blending of humans and the experience that molds them. As an old adage says, “Experience is the best teacher. ” Books are meant to be a comprehensive textual guide to anything and everything under the sun. It may be safe to assume that each and every experience ever known to man since time immemorial has been written in all the books across the world. Certainly, books are useful to the world and it educates mankind from one generation to another.

However, practical experience starts from birth (in fact, it starts upon conception), which is long before anyone could read books. Practical experience is that which effectively teaches a person what works and what doesn’t work in the everyday routine of life. Experience teaches one how to gauge the weight of things so decisions are easier to make when you are equipped with experience as opposed to being guided by all the best books ever written on earth. Still, in fairness to books and their importance to life, some significant matters like dealing with pregnancy, especially first time pregnancy, cannot be entrusted to practical experience.

Helpful books that are guides to pregnancy are necessary for first time mothers because quite obviously, they do not have the experience to guide them through the initial experience. However, when it comes to the “next pregnancy,” mothers are already equipped with the necessary practical experience that will enable them to identify the things that work, does not work, or even the things that are potentially harmless for them in their condition. Books on the subject of History, Mathematics and Science are also important, and no amount of practical experience can outweigh the knowledge gathered by books of these subjects.
However, practical experience will enrich these books further, at least in the minds of its readers. The strategies of Napoleon Bonaparte, for instance, can only mean something to the present generation once some practical experience of some authority brings Napoleon Bonaparte’s strategies to life in the present time. Therefore, it is still practical experience that gives life to books. Suffice it to say that nothing beats practical experience in helping man accomplish his goals and endeavors in life, because ultimately, the greatest lessons are lived, not read.
Millions of books on self-empowerment have also been lucrative on the publishing industry. The truth, however, is that if man listens to the pieces of advice of their parents, or their neighbors, or the news features and entertainment motion pictures delivered by the media, books are virtually unnecessary as a reference to amassing wealth or developing oneself. The truth, in a nutshell, is that man can live without books, but man’s failure to learn from practical experience has all the potential to cause his doom.