“School” as a leisure time
Have you ever wondered how “school” is translated from the Greek language? Originally the Greek word “σχολή” or “σχολά” meant “leisure, free time”, then it came to be used as “leisure activities”. Only a few people of that time could afford leisure time; most of them had to provide for their subsistence and survival. Broad interests for leisure arose from the study of science, theories, and models of the world. The general human desire to learn about the world has led to a scientific revolution, including more people having leisure time, which everyone uses at their own discretion.
With the advent of the scientific revolution, the amount of knowledge about the world began to grow like a snowball, and only school was able to guarantee the transmission of a minimal set of world models to the masses of people, without which (world models) one cannot successfully integrate into the human world. School in the broad sense, along with wealth, became a ticket to quality and interesting life. The study of new knowledge shaped the interests of man, moving him further and further away from the interests of the animal creature. An animal’s needs and desires have not disappeared, but their satisfaction has become possible at the expense of knowledge. For example, an animal gains respect and social status through strength and skill, while a human being achieves this through scientific discovery.
In the first phase, school provides the individual with knowledge, but the purpose of learning does not end there. Human civilization has stimulated man to become a “doer”, who, taking into account the knowledge he has acquired, creates different systems. To this day, the religious scriptures tell us that “Every man should plant a tree, build a house and raise a son”. In this sense every man is an engineer-manager.
Or a more original one:
A “doer” creates physical systems throughout life, thereby changing the world. “To raise a son” speaks of the ability to create a human system, and in this sense, a person who is ready to live independently. As one enters adulthood, each person is engaged in self-development. “To build a house” is the ability to create an engineering or technical system. “Planting a tree” is the ability to create a natural system. Given recent advances in science, this famous statement is likely to change in the future. Ideas about robots, immortality, or infinite self-development already are emerging, and so building a house may change to the ability to train a neural network. Also, it may not be enough to have one tree, and the “doer” will need to think about how to save the planet.
The modern conditions of civilization, unlike in the past, enable any person to be a “doer” who creates systems during his lifetime. What systems a person will be able to create depends on the theories and pictures of the world that they learn in the school of life.
Man Changes the World
The abstract world has helped mankind to break far from other animals in the quality of analyzing and modeling the world, which has accordingly allowed doers to create and bring man-made systems into the world. Human superiority is not measured in terms of its impact on the environment, but in its understanding of life and its ability to shape the world around it.
The ability to create systems is a major human skill. Whether one is aware of it or not, one creates systems or destroys them (e.g., nature). An active view of the world helps a person not just to live his life, sometimes on autopilot, but to take an active position as a doer who changes the world. At the same time, enjoyment of one’s own skill or the joy of successful activity is a powerful motivation for a person.
What systems a person will create during his lifetime depends on his interests, which are shaped by his environment (the social environment). The world external to the individual shapes his interests, lays down his dreams and goals. Following his interests, man learns the theories and methods by which he creates systems, thereby changing the world. This process occurs unconsciously in most people, and so it is difficult to improve.
Attention to each component of this diagram “doer changing the world” helps to find solutions to internal problems, the meaning of human actions and activities. Human life depends on environment, heredity, skill, and luck. We cannot change heredity, genes form a person’s predisposition to something.
A person’s predisposition is difficult to detect, so, as with a person’s possible interests, the same testing method should be used. By testing a person’s possible interests, it is possible to identify the genes’ abilities.
Luck is not to be written off in any way. It can dramatically affect a person’s life. But we cannot predict or “create” luck, so it is important to wait for luck and be in shape at that moment. That is, we must not make fatal mistakes, after which no luck will help.
Later on, we’ll talk about environmental influences. About how to identify its negative influences and use the positive ones, which helps a person to develop infinitely and change the world for the better. Man’s main tool is his mastery. Mastery is the mastered theories and methods that provide insight into reality (modeling) and through which successful systems are created. In the end, the theories and methods allow one to make better use of one’s heredity and environment, and not to miss one’s luck or waste success.
To emphasize why theories and methods are important in today’s world, we suggest looking at INCOSE data on the cost of fixing errors depending on the stage of the life cycle. Knowing the right theories protects, at a minimum, against the mistakes of the fool and, at a maximum, gives skill and competitive advantage.
