"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw
I keep running into people who just don't get these things:
Communication
- is about transferring thoughts from one brain to another.
Words
- mean something.
Communication works when two people attach
the same meaning to the same word.
How you string the words together can affect the meaning.
Poetry that rhymes should have line breaks in the correct places.
Change
- when something is made different.
The word does not imply what kind of difference is made.
Progress
- one type of change. Positive change.
Change does not automatically become progress just because
you're the person behind it.
Deterioration
- another type of change. Negative change.
Progress and deterioration are not the only kinds of change.
The same change can be described as "progress" by one person
and as "deterioration" by another. That does not have to mean
that one of them is wrong.
Intelligence
- how smart somebody is.
There are different kinds of intelligence.
A good memory is not the same thing as intelligence.
Knowledge
- what should be the result of going to school.
Can also happen without going to school.
Education
- one result of going to school.
Education is not the same thing as intelligence.
Education is not the same thing as knowledge.