As a kid, there wasn't many other ways I could have gained information. It came firstly from the folks at home, then from the teachers in school. There wasn't much one could do but accept knowledge from these sources at face value and hope its worth whatever they are made out to me.
A bit later, there were libraries. Huge collections of information trapped with books enthrall which would the mind. The best part is you get to pick what you want to. And so, the choice widened but it was only as accessible as often as the folks brought me there. But still, it was a great leap.
Then the Internet happened. And boy, was it a whizz.
It was as if a surge of knowledge broke through. Never before was there so much information so readily available at the fingertips. It was a curious time as well as an empowering time. Data out there just to be collected as well as information being updated by the second.
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So, that was the nutshell of perhaps, what most of my generation must have went through. We are a special bunch because we lived through the transition from analog to digital.
And the funny thing is, it is only now that I start to think: "Hey, I'm learning something here. compared to school, I get a choice, isn't this great?"
Then it struck me - What's happening now is the liberation of information from the few to the many. The sources of data have exponentially increased. The challenge is no longer getting the knowledge, but picking the right one to believe in.
And I learnt. Not to internalize bits of information nor to memorize dates, people and times, but to look at concepts and arguments, ideas and visions. We live in a age of ideas, not information, which merely is the vessel for ideas to propagate. The key now is working with information to get the ideas, not working the information alone.
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