Practice Makes Perfect

 

In any field of inquiry, the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important contributions.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Can anyone ever definitively answer the question what was there in the beginning? Not specifically the beginning of something in particular, generally, in the beginning of anything. In some sense the inchoates of anything is a beginner. From objects like constituent components like gases forming massive planets, to the first innovator who built the wheel. Everything, both as a concept, and everyone, was at some point a beginner. Even a human being that starts of as an obnoxious inquisitive child involuntarily in search of their own passions. And it stands to reason that all that begins as a tyro ends as an expert. In one field or another, in one form or another. Without being an expert it is implausible to make significant contribution to any field of inquiry. Was Isaac Newton not a notorious physicist before the supposed apple fell on his head one fine afternoon? It was only through his superb expertise was he able to properly observe and derive our understandings of gravity. The apple may have been a tiny trigger, but it was years of training for Sir Isaac Newton that allowed him to make something of a fallen apple.

From ancient times since the existence of the first ‘experts’ we have also observed the training of new beginners. Since the profound age of the greek philosophers we see that Socrates would pose as the expert, and Plato and Epicurius and several other subjects, who entered as beginners would build their own legacies as thoughtful experts. Same for Sun Tzu was prepared the ‘Art of War’ and is now, centuries after still being quoted as having the best philosophy of war. In islam, the Prophet Muhammad had numerous subjects and disciplines who observed every word of his day in and day out and prepared the hadiths and who then went on to bring the golden age of Islam. This is not open to debate, without experts there can be no experts and even more so no meaningful contribution can ever be made without the guidance of experts.

Moving away from these histrionic examples, we observe such behaviors even in our day to day experiences. The parents posing as experts of an experienced life teach their children the beginners of how to live. The teachers in a school are a stepping stone for every neophyte to explore new horizons and find their passions. They pose as benchmarks of an accomplished individual and create our society and show the children what they wish to aim towards. A standing example to pursue discipline and avoid decadence to achieve what one wishes for.

That doesn’t deprive beginners of their gift though. The most notable contribution that a beginner brings to the table is always going to be the outlook, the new generational view. The less conservative, urbane understanding of the world. That is the reason we have slang, and memes in the 21st century. But these savvy personalities would all be in vain without proper guidance and training from the experts. Though the experts provide a significantly conservative view on all the fields in question, they provide a more pragmatc view to everything. Without which the beginner is lost to speculation of what could be. 

Can it be said however, that this is truly applicable to ALL fields of inquiry? That, I leave to the person inquiring and the field in question. It strongly depends on whether the person is a beginner or an expert themselves, as humans are notoriously self centered. Or whether the field requires new and modern outlooks regularly, like the concepts of modern art, where if there were no beginners or explorers there would be nothing to appreciate. Or is that even entirely true, as without Picasso many would claim little inspiration for modern art. Reverting back, I leave that decision, to the inquisitor.

Time: 28 mins

Word Count: 638