The greatest wisdom is to apply what others have learned.

Who among us can learn everything? Have we the time? The ability?

In almost everything we do or use throughout the day, we depend on the knowledge of others. Who has time to build the car before they drive to work? Who will invent electricity before work so they can have coffee. Our modern lives are totally dependent on the experience of others.

Yet where it matters most, we deny the experience of others. We insist we must burn our own hands to learn the stove is hot, and sometimes we must burn it many times before we learn. To be able to bring the experience of those before us into our personal lives can be our greatest wealth. Why will we spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to learn the theorems and paradigms of faceless others, while we scorn the experience of those around us because we believe we are different, we are special.

When last we flew, did we ponder what sort of man Bernoulli was? Whether he was qualified to decide that wings would lift? Why will we trust our lives to a mystic theory of fluid dynamics, yet in the same day deny the experience of those around us when it affects our personal lives, our feelings, our emotions, our morals, and our judgment.

When we refuse the wisdom of those before us, we remain as school children. Forever touching the stove to see if it is hot. It was when we can trust the emotional wisdom of others that we can grow as adults. Using this experience we can grow exponentially. We no longer have to hurt to learn.