A continuous struggle with ignorance begins at the very moment of our birth and continues as long as we have an interest in the world. We are destined to fail. As we learn more and more it becomes plainly apparent that the things unknown to us are insurmountable. To this point in my life, I would say that the more a person learns the more keenly aware they become of their own ignorance. Knowledge stacked upon knowledge for even the most mundane tasks have been developed during the course of human history and will continue their inexorable and unending path as each generation stacks more layers of knowledge upon their predecessors.
Considering the wealth of knowledge available for consumption, knowing where to place focus becomes crucial. The ability to recognize knowledge that is timeless becomes a very important skill. The longer your knowledge is pertinent the more effective your education becomes. Many fall into the trap of being enticed by the beauty of a certain body of knowledge over its functionality. In general, there is very little guidance related to how and in what order to acquire knowledge. Contrary to mainstream opinion, gaining knowledge is not always good, particularly when absorption of knowledge takes away from the time that should be spent immersed in higher priority learning. The laws of finite resources must be obeyed when making a determination as to direction and priority to learning. The best decisions are made when your individual strengths and passions are given equal bearing upon them. Of course, the financial component of such decisions should not be taken lightly. Nothing can drive the need for enlightenment better than a good synthesis of these three components (strength, passion, and fiscal).
Caution should be maintained when exercising self-perception of these three items. The passion portion is fraught with the kind of emotional component that can lead to distortion or poor decisions. At the same time, this is usually the clearest and easiest to see. Personal strengths and weaknesses can hide behind veils of weak self-perception. I do not feel this myself but it is so obvious in others that I assume that it must exist in me to some degree. If you have access to a trusted person who has good judgment and knows you well, it would be wise to ask them about your strengths. The financial component is a simple matter of research. Spend the time to objectively resource the manner and amount of financial benefit that can be derived from a body of information. This is more important during the years of establishing ourselves than it is after we have been established.
As a footnote, it should be noted that once we have accrued enough capital or time ourselves as a result of the application of these principles, it is then our responsibility to lend ourselves to philanthropic endeavors in an ever-widening circle around us, with an eye to maintaining proper priority. I know it may seem unrelated to mention it here, but the things we strive to do should have some end goal in mind. If philanthropy is after all the end goal, it should be considered during the education process as well. This leads back to the establishment of our personal core principles which will be discussed among other essays.