Wisdom is Earned, Not Given

I came across the quote "Wisdom is earned, not given", and it really resonated with me.

In our current day and age, information is freely and widely available. You can immediately find content produced by some of the smartest people in their fields, whether it's books, articles, videos, or podcasts.

I am part of a generation that grew up with the internet; around the age of 16, I learned that I could Google all my problems and find solutions to anything pretty quickly.

As time went on, I began using Google very often, I would say more than a dozen times a day. This led me to believe that I could figure anything out and, by extension, gave me a false sense of knowing everything. I was obivously wrong.

Information is very useful, don't get me wrong, when that's all you want. However, expecting to gain wisdom only through absorbing information is not possible.

You can read and watch countless films about skydiving, but unless you've actually experienced it, you'll never truly understand how it feels or acquire the wisdom that comes with doing it.

Firsthand wisdom is acquired through personal experience, involving numerous failures, growth, and the accumulation of small lessons learned along the way. This wisdom helps you build a model of the world that will serve you for new challenges ahead. Giving all of this acquired wisdom to someone else is challenging; all you can do is describe it.

While information can help show you the way, wisdom must be earned through experience.