[bkadoctaj]

Originally Posted by CosmicSerpent

The way I have always thought about it is that life experience is a tool to gain knowledge. Some people use the tool to the best of their ability, and others completely ignore it. It is possible to gain knowledge without life experience, but the level of knowledge you are able to gain is limited without it for most people. To me, there is a component of knowledge that is missing if you don't have some sort of experience to go along with it.... I don't know what to call this component, maybe understanding, or observation, or comprehension. None of those words seem quite right, but hopefully you know what I'm getting at. You can read and study an entire lifetime about the world, but until you have experienced your life to the fullest, none of it fits together exactly right in the big picture. It's hard for me to explain this accurately, but here's an example...

Imagine there's a young man working on his doctorate in some advanced science, or philosophy or something. He's been in school his entire life, always been at the top of the class, has tuition virtually paid off in scholarships, but he has never had a real job or traveled very far. Now imagine there's an old man, in retirement, he's never had more than a high school education, but he's worked hard, he's met people, he's been places. The old man has a better understanding of how the world works, even though the student has more technical knowledge.

The movie "Good Will Hunting" comes to mind.

By what in your life is not a part of your "experience"? What that you do or perceive (interpretations of others' "first-hand" experiences) is not experiencing?