Knowledge is power. In agriculture, medicine, and industry, for example, knowledge has liberated us from hunger, disease, and tedious labour. Today, however, our knowledge has become so powerful that it is beyond our control. We know how to do many things, but we do not know where, when, or even whether this know-how should be used.
Assignment:
Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
Unassailably, knowledge is a powerful tool that grooms and empowers us into greater persons. This appreciation in mentality allows us to progress further in life; transforming ourselves from the Stone Age caveman to the modernized people who live in sophisticated society. However, there is always a price to pay for receiving such a wonderful gift --- the explosion of knowledge has become too aggressive that we can hardly absorb and handle them properly.
As accustomed to more complicated principles learnt, we tend to think things in a more complicated manner and lose our innate simplicity and imaginations, which are rather valuable. There is an interesting scenario that depicts this situation well. A well-established company in Canada that sells box containing tablets faced a problem in dealing with its quality control. In order for each box to contain the right amount of tablets, each qualified box will hit a certain weight. To solve this problem, several mechanical engineers are hired. They spent thousands dollars and time in designing machines that can weigh the box accurately. The boss is very satisfied with the outcome until he visits his adversary, which faces the same problem but has financial difficulty in implementing expensive machines. The low-skilled staff there simply uses a fan to blow at the boxes containing tablets. Those boxes that fly away are simply the defective boxes that contain too little tablets. This allegory has well displayed that, sometimes the abundance of knowledge simply kills off our native simplicity in finding solutions.
Besides that, as one increasingly armed with knowledge, one tends to become more judgmental and have perceived mindset regarding particular cases which one is familiar with. This perceived mindset is precarious, as it affects one’s objectivity and impartiality. It is especially harmful if this attitude is applied to fields which emphasize new discovery, such as science research field. Due to the wealth of pre-loaded knowledge accumulated in the scientists, it may be hard for them to have breakthrough in their experiments if they are restricted to the knowledge they pre-possessed. In this case, knowledge serves more to be a hindrance than a stepping stone to success.
It is concluded that the influence of knowledge is substantial and impeccable, as it serves as the basis for human to progress continuously in life. However, if this tool is not applied or handled appropriately, knowledge will turn out to be disastrous and useless. It is a dual usage knife, as it can aid one in achieving goal in an easy manner, while it can hurt one horribly if it is wrongly used. Whether beneficial or not, it is all dependent on one’s ability in controlling it.
Time spent: 40 minutes.
Nice essay, overall good