Topic 8: Book or experience_ Ngocphan

I agree with the statement “not everything that is learned is contained in books” because we actually gain knowledge from various sources including both books and experience. Although the two sources can provide us with a large amount of knowledge, they are different from each other according to some aspects.

Firstly, reading books seems more convenient because they are portable and contain various subjects to meet our demand ranging from fundamental to deeper knowledge. On the contrary, we cannot do it through learning from experience just because we do not have conditions. For example, we want to learn about Mars, the Sun, we cannot get there to experience. Also, apart from some scientists, we can hardly join the research plan to do research on them. Another example is that we cannot go to all places in the world to learn about those ones; the most common way is to read books.

Nonetheless, books are often theoretical and may become backward after a short time. The reality often changes and is often much more complex. Not everything can be covered in books. Sometimes, the theory in a certain period of time cannot be applied to other periods. There are also many things else that we have to do research on to discover new things or create new inventions which are not available in books. So we have to learn from experience. Only by learning from experience can we draw precious lessons which are the key to success.

Although both are important, in my opinion, “experience is the best teacher”. Through experience, we can learn much more things with up-to-date information and it has been proven to be easier for us to remember those lessons.  In the real life, any activities require skills. Without practice, we cannot possess them and succeed even if we are good at theory. In cooking, for instance, if reading books can help one be good at cooking without practicing, then anyone can be good at it. One even cannot cook a dish well for several first times but he needs to make many more attempts to succeed. There is a fact that one who does not read books can still work after some training programs by a certain company, but one who just reads books can hardly do a job without practicing.

To sum up, books are more convenient to read and have various topics to study, but experience can train us to work more effectively, proficiently and flexibly. As Learning from experience gives us more benefits, it is more important than learning from books.