I am slowly coming to terms with the degree of intellectual ineptitude in parts of the corporate world.
Don't get me wrong, there are many highly qualified people with mind-boggling intellect in the office floor. Most of these guys have backgrounds in mathematics, engineering, physics, accounting and economics. They do their work with squeaky clean professionalism and I hold them in high regard for that.
However the world of literature and the arts, as well as general knowledge, is a gobbledygook- an alien concept- to many of the guys I deal with on a regular basis. Some of them don't even bother to read any materials outside their professional domain. Books that have nothing to do with their work is usually considered a distraction that should be avoided at all cost.
The pursuit for excellence in the art of number crunching, financial modelling, writing sophisticated technical reports and the occasional wild parties seem to be the sum total of their existence.
They live in a parallel universe where the highest form of intellectual satisfaction is sitting in front of the laptop perfecting spreadsheets or tracking the performance of financial markets.
The real joy of intellectual discourse and literary adventures in the real world is neither required nor encouraged in their daily livelihoods.
This lifestyle of self-imposed narrow-mindedness in my view is the worst kind of poverty.
4 comments:
Wow, Posekyere, some venting! But I agree with you that I would not want to be an expert in my professional field and know nothing about other areas. I like it that you liken it to poverty. I have no choice but to agree totally. These peeps have no excuse these days, when they have internet-enabled computers. Knowledge is relatively cheap these days. What venting!
Hi Nana Yaw,
I wish they could somehow come to the realisation that life is not only about becoming an exceptional worker. There is more to life than that, I believe.
Sharply put, Posekyere. I completely agree, I find the more educated the person I meet, in terms of titles, professors or highly specialised doctors, the more socially incompetent they are with a higher lack of general knowledge (of course, this does not apply to everyone). Just like you've said it seems in their pursuit to become the best of their field, they forget about everything else, other areas of knowledge, but also more importantly, other areas of life.
Hi Maya!
It is so unfortunate that for the sake of specialisation, many folks have decided to give up on so many aspects of life.
Perhaps, that is their way of dealing with the issues of information overload.
It is so sad!
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