![]() "The devil knows more because of Facebook than because he is the devil." While some may disclose embarrassing behavior on Facebook and others may share too many cat videos, converting an occurrence into experience requires reflection. ![]() The following adaptation of the adage, in a way, makes the same point with humor: In so many ways, the pace of modern life discourages this deeper reflection that allows occurrences to develop into genuine experience. ![]() It ain't enough just to be there one has to engage both at the time and after to draw real learning from it. An encounter with a stranger, travel across the globe, a simple exchange while making a purchase at the grocery store, an occurrence becomes experience, or wisdom, through reflection that digests and synthesizes the event. Our lives are filled with many daily events and occurrences. Here, I'd differentiate "experience" from "occurrences." One can be a bystander to or even participant in great moments of human history without any deep engagement or deep reflection. a study from Princeton), this phrase suggests that experience matters, and it matters more than natural or supernatural gifts. While others now dispute Gladwell's conclusion (cf. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, via his 10,000 Hour Rule, holds that 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" are needed to become world-class in any field. The phrase in actual use conveys a positive sense of what one learns from experience. The devil has been at the task of temptation for a long time, and he knows his trade, suggests the saying. One attribute of the phrase is to suggest that the devil and all his wiles, enticements, deceptions, and lures are not born of any special gift so much as a deep and long encounter with human nature, a keen observation of humans and our choices. Similarly, this Spanish-language wisdom requires some unpacking: " Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo." The devil knows more because he is old than because he is the devil. Sometimes expressions are so particular that they only can be understood in a particular context. Because a phrase is well-known to us, it may not captures us quite the way that one from a second language might. We may not think twice about an expression like "The apple does not fall far from the tree," but its use in another language requires an explanation of what the phrase implies. Often, proverbs in our native tongue do not surprise us as they are so common. It's a phrase of Mexican origin, I'm told: " Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo." It translates to "The devil knows more because he is old than because he is the devil."
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