One Apple A Day #18
Ethos anthropos daimon - Heraclitus
It’s a quote from Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher. It can be translated as “Character is fate”. Your character will shape your future. Your character determines the way you face life. It defines what you will achieve.
When I was growing up and studying, in the ‘90s, people used to say “knowledge is power”. It was a way to motivate us to study. It was also a reflection of the society defined by the third industrial revolution. Factories and mass production divided society between who execute and who command. The main difference between the two groups was the access to “knowledge”. Most of the factory workers were illiterate. The leaders were the ones going to universities, reading books, knowing “things”.
So, in that society, knowledge more than character was the key element defining your fate.
Things started to change after the second world war. The amount of people that were able to go to schools and access the “knowledge” increased. Knowledge became less a distinctive factor in defining the fate of a human. Radio and television accelerated this process broadcasting knowledge to a wider audience.
Internet was the game changer. It has been a huge leap forward in knowledge distribution. As a result, now knowledge is no more a distinctive factor. It’s almost a commodity. Everything you can learn is a few links a way. There are tutorials on youtube for anything you may want to do.
The bad news is that knowledge is not power, anymore. The good news is that character is fate more than ever.
Knowing what to do is not the same as doing what you know.
Attitude is as important, if not more, as talents and skills.