knowledge

So today I am writing the first last exam of my university career. Economics. The most boring and useless subject in the world, if you ask me. After 3 years of it I still can't manage to make my pocket money last an entire month. I've been studying for this exam for about a week now, 10 hours a day, only to never use any of the knowledge I have forced into my brain ever again after 10pm tonight.

This got me thinking about knowledge and the problem with the way the university tries to apply it. Most of the stuff I have learnt -facts, numbers, dates and rude acronyms - over the past 3 years is actually absolutely useless in the real world. Perhaps it is because I'm studying a very wishy washy, academic degree - Politics, Philosophy and Economics. I suppose an engineer learns something useful in his time as a jeans-and-takkies dork. I recently read the Tao of Pooh - Chinese Taoism through the world's most loved bear. It kinds of makes you understand what Milne meant when he said he did not intend the book to be read by children. I came across a bit on knowledge, which kind of said what I felt:

"Owl, instead, seeks the Knowledge for the sake of Appearing Wise, the one who studies Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge, and who keeps what he learns to himself or to his own small group, rather than working for the enlightenment of others. That way, the scholars can appear Superior, and will not likely be suspected of Not Knowing Something."

Maybe we should stop trying to know everything, and be everything, and rather just be. As Piglet said : "Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.". Maybe we should be more like Pooh.