I tried to learn this aphorism from my book of aphorisms.
총명은 둔필만 못하다
chong.myeong.eun dun.pil.man mot.ha.da
intelligence-TOPIC poor-handwriting-ONLY unable-do
“Intelligence can’t even do as well as poor handwriting.”
Even if you’re smart, if you don’t take notes or document things well, you won’t get far. This comes down to “diligence is worth more than smarts,” and is thus somewhat similar to those sayings in the vein of “Success is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration.” I suppose I myself suffer from this shortcoming. I’m bad at taking notes. I am often trying to teach my students to take notes, and realizing how inadequate I am to the task, myself.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]
Jared, I’m disappointed by this post of yours. I can’t remember ever seeing BS on your blog before, but this is … BS. Not what I would have expected from a teacher.
Day in, day out, what matters 90+% of the time is what we have in our heads. Or do you constantly refer to some “good teaching technique” notes during your classes?
I’ve never been a note taker and was even harassed by several teachers in my school years for not doing so. What became of me? I work in an intellectually highly challenging profession, much of my work in a language different from my native tongue.
The Russians have their own saying: “Повторение мать учение.” Repetition is the mother of learning. To this I would agree.
Hi David,
Respectfully, I would have to disagree, somewhat. It is NOT BS – it is, ultimately, the typical Korean cultural perspective, which is embedded in the aphorism, of course, and also, after 10 years here, somewhat embedded in my brain. And please note – these “Aphorism posts” which I do are not reflections of my opinion, precisely: they’re interpretations of the aphorism, and then a personal observation if one occurs to me – so when I say here “I suppose I myself suffer from this shortcoming,” you should realize that it goes without saying to add “… if you choose to look at things from this perspective.”
For my own self, I still retain the more “American” (Western? I’m not sure) view that, as you said, “what matters 90+% of the time is what we have in our heads.”
But I have also come to feel there is some value to the Korean view. Certainly, we cannot deny their diligence and commitment to “rote” (including the kind of detailed note-taking as documented in this aphorism) has managed to take them, as a culture, quite far.
Further, and more specific to what I teach on a day-to-day basis: I’m trying to help kids maximize their scores on standardized tests, such as the Korean college entrance exam (English section) and the TOEFL. Both of these contexts require intense attention to detail – they’re designed to reward detailed note-taking behavior, and trying to bypass this design parameter through sheer brainpower is a bit hit-or-miss – as my own history with standardized test-taking has shown me. So… we could object to that design philosophy (and I sometimes do) but that’s not going to help the students, unless they want to skip the test and go be countercultural or something.
Anyway, the Russian aphorism you cite in closing actually might easily support the Korean view as much as the alternate view you’re offering: it all depends what behavior you’re repeating. I’m just suggesting that for my students, some repetition of the specific activity of note-taking could benefit their long term academic careers.