Wow, nice to see Marine’s engaging in deep abstract talk, so much for the Stereotype that Marines are dumb.
Dimandja - I completely agree. We must learn to think outside the square. Believe it or not I learnt this skill while in the USMC. People often think Marines are mindless drones obeying orders but we are taught to make command decisions when need and we are taught to try to get a bigger picture before making those decisions.
From one Marine to another (SemperFiDownUnda, powahusr), I could not agree with you more. The general impression is that Marines are mindless grunts. Though there is a chain of command and we must follow our superior’s orders, we still have a multitude of decisions that we must make within those orders, on our own. The same can be said while working at any company, your manager follows their manager’s orders, and you follow your manager’s orders but in the civilian world, they are in the form of "Requests, Deliverables, and Deadlines". Ultimately, you do your work (apply your knowledge) and you get the job done.
Anyway, Marines are born and bread to "Problem Solve". Before the fashion statement, "Think outside the box" surfaced; to Marines it is otherwise known as "Improvising". If you are a Marine, you intimately know and understand what the term "Improvising" means. In training, there were some things that really did not make any sense as to the point of doing it, like having all the contents of one's foot locker dumped all over the deck because your foot locker wasn't secured, but little did you know that the groundwork was being laid to prepare us to tackle something greater down the road. It taught us to pay more attention to the little things, which ultimately could lead to a larger problem down the road. I know it is a crude example, but there were many clever, provident techniques too. It was like piece-by-piece; we were being built to tackle any problem that came our way.
Then there were the Patrol Orders, the epitome of Planning and execution of a plan. The high standards needed to be maintained throughout a Marine’s career. For anyone to say a Marine is a dummy and could not possibly handle a "white-collar" job would be naïve. College cannot possibly teach someone the personal skills you acquire while in the Marines, like Problem Solving, Thinking on your feet, Making Command Decisions, Team work, etc, etc. Upon completion of one’s enlistment, the Marine should be awarded a degree for all that one learned and experienced. Cumulatively speaking, any Computer Program/Class that I have been through felt less than the challenge of what I experienced throughout my military career.
Ok, back too the topic, or what has evolved from it...
I believe balanced learning is key to ones success. Being Book Smart or Hands on Smart are not the only paths to succeeding at something.
For all other points, I agree that you have to open a book to learn at some point in time, if you leave everything to hands on experience, there will be so many holes in your knowledge, often referred to as "Swiss Cheese" knowledge. I must also not rely solely on books, manuals, and other literal items to learn, though I might be able to clearly explain something, I may have a hard time actually applying what I have read. I think Bulletin Boards such as "Tek-Tips" can accelerate your learning by eliminating the fluff of a manual and applying what someone has told me to do based off their experience. It is a quick and dirty, yet effective way of learning a technique you would of never found in a book, or you may have thought to try.
I think after you have read all the books, got some experience under your belt, I have to say, there is no better way of growing, than learning from other people in your field. I am never too proud to ask a question.
