You may have experienced that the old pictures of someone else or you were so funny because people in the pictures were old-fashioned; their hairstyle, clothes, and even their look. Then, can you believe the knowledge could also get old-fashioned and become useless? Alvin Toffler, an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, raised new concept ‘Obsoledge’ in his book, 'Revolutionary Wealth.'
"The reason is that every chunk of knowledge has a limited shelf life. At some point it becomes obsolete knowledge - that what might more appropriately be called ‘obsoledge.’" (Revolutionary Wealth)?
Indeed, we’re living in fast-changing world with fast-increasing information whether it is useful or not. In the past, once people learn something, they lived with the knowledge for the rest of their life, but it is not true anymore. Even one’s career could be devaluated as time goes by. It is natural that people could get disappointed because they don’t know when the knowledge they are learning could become useless.
After reading the book or knowing about this, some might think that they need nothing but newly updated knowledge. Of course it is very important to accept new information day by day. However, go back to the basics and never stop reading classical literatures and books are important as well. There is an old proverb saying, ‘A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.’ A book is the accumulation of long history and the result of the wisdom. You may have felt that when reading classical books, you unconsciously sympathize with the story at some point even though it is the story of hundreds years ago or even thousands years ago. Then, isn’t it also good way for you to find answer in this complicated world?
