Experience is always considered the best teacher because words can only form air and dissolve into thin air in an instant. Words can only form theories where experience can prove if these theories are true. However, it is the balance of theories and experiences that makes most experiences much safer to handle. But, as a person, did you really learn a lot when you experienced something that you already have a preliminary hypothesis of?
In all honesty, I’ve felt that I’ve learned more diving headfirst into the subject than of reading books and manuals about using a certain product or doing a certain activity. This is something that will have me learn “the hard way” as many say it, because my mistakes will teach me what to do the next time. Everyone is afraid to make mistakes, but making mistakes is what helps you get more out of life. Life is a learning process. Experience is a great teacher.
But sometimes, experience teaches you that diving headfirst is not always the right way all the time. For example, industrial activities are not things that you can rush and dive headfirst into. You’ll need to learn the basics of the industry, the safety procedures, the protocols to ensure everyone’s safety and other details. Industry-related occupations are full of dangers for non- professionals and surely, they did not dive headfirst into the subject just to learn mining. Many pioneers have died in every respective industry which helped determine the safety guidelines you have read nowadays.
Being a medical professional is also not something that you can go all-guns-blazing into. You’ll need precise hands, a knowledge of the body’s organic circuitry, how to incise properly, the prescription medication you are to provide and more. Most people trust an experienced doctor. An experienced doctor is someone who has trained most of his or her life in educating oneself about the different human conditions, as well as more technical aspects that require their dexterity, patience and timing.
Think about it. Many people who dove headstrong into dangerous aspects have died contributing new knowledge to their successors. To dive headfirst is not a bad thing, but to know that there are people who died and you are to die for the same mistake they did is something else. Experiencing things firsthand is not a bad thing, but adding something to the experience of other people, notably those who contributed to certain fields, is a better way to learn from life don’t you think?