Quote:
Originally Posted by Professor S
Listening to what others have to say can help strengthen your own opinion or better yet, help change your opinion for the better once you've thought about a topic from a new light. The point is to LISTEN and THINK before allowing it to help shape your thoughts. Those are two activities that one can never do too much.
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Good post. I took Typhoid's question and thought about it. I can't come up with any response better than yours, however I thought it interesting how in my experience his question is one posed by many, but not only just about the media. For example, I hear something similar fairly often from fellow engineering students or physics majors or similar. Some ask the question why they need to learn more specialized areas of engineering, when they argue that they are able to derive everything they need from the basic physics equations. For example, I'm a studying electrical engineer, and a friend of mine who is also an EE used to complain that he doesn't need specialized integrated chips because he can build the exact same thing out of the basic analog components. While he's right, that is he is able make the same thing out of analog components, he would also be wasting a lot of time.
Edit: I reread this and thought maybe the connection between my example and Typhoid's isn't very clear. Questioning the need for specialized areas of engineering is another way of questioning the need for what other people have already said or done, and boils down to the question why can't someone figure out the things they need on their own without incorporating what others have already done.
In this case, I do think learning the basics (especially electromagnetic theory for EEs) is key to truly understanding the field. But as you said, a lot can be learned and your knowledge can be strengthened by listening and thinking about what others have already done or said.
A roundabout way of saying you don't always need to reinvent the wheel, which I think applies to Tyhpoid's question as well.