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On Experience
Experience is a shifty thing. It all depends on how it is defined, and the context in which it is used. It can lead people NOT to think, or other times can do the opposite and prompt thinking. And when we say ‘think’, we mean to think ABOUT that which the experience is in.
When experience is used in the context of physical labor or actions, oftentimes people don’t think because of it. The mind will wander from the activity at hand and the actions will happen automatically. A good example of this is driving. When one is driving a route that has been taken numerous times before there is a great deal of experience about that driving. Think of some place you drive all the time. How often is your mind focused on driving? Not very often if your experience is great. Doing a task repeatedly also has this effect. Once done with a repetition, can you remember what just happened or was the mind wandering? I would venture to guess that the latter is the case. Thus experience can lead to not thinking.
Other times, experience can lead to thinking. Especially when something new, such as a job, confronts you. You would remember your former experiences at other jobs and would think about how best to do the new one. Another example is when something bad could happen with a choice. One would use experience to think about it, and then make the safest choice. This is how experience can foster thought.
The problem with experience is that most people switch the non-thinking context experience with the thinking one. A good example of this is voting day. Most people don’t investigate the candidates. Nor do they think about past experience that they’ve had with either the party or candidate they usually vote for. They use their experience in the non-thinking way and just automatically vote. Whereas, if they used their experience to think about the past, they’d be able to make far better informed opinions.
Experience is a good thing, but it is the PEOPLE who must choose when it leads them to automatic decisions, or when it provokes them to think