Applying to be a dispatcher of longhaul trucks, I would be asked if I have any experience dispatching 18-wheelers. Since I have none at all, I might not be a hot candidate for the job. Like everyone else, I have run into the problem of getting experience if no one will let me get some. But I often wondered, what it was that I would know if I were experienced that I don't know now.
One important answer to what experience does is provide a feel for probabilities associated with important events related to that field. I wrote about the beautiful and touching young boy visitor playing bingo in a room of seniors who announced repeatedly in a bright, optimistic voice that he was going to win. It took quite a few rounds and quite a few wins by others before he burst into tears of despair. I don't know if he has played any more or not but he sure has a better grasp of how likely it is that he will line up five in a row before anyone else in the room.
I recently heard of an emergency room physician and a circuit court judge who both explained the pain of long practice dealing with lives, death and punishment. It was clear that experience had delivered pain and doubt and compassion and frustration to both of them. It was clear, too, that joy, appreciation, and pride of good service had been part of their experience. Experience provided both with assurance of their powers and understanding of the limits of their powers.
We have all taken courses that we could not now pass. But the experience has usually provided us with the confidence that we did used to know and could probably know again, with just a little peek at Google or those old notes down in the basement.
As a young person, I sometimes fell victim to a bout of depression as I realized some danger lurked ahead. But by now, experience has taught me that just as Mark Twain found, "I have known many troubles and most of them never happened." I will admit though, that there have been some serious downers as well as some great gifts, which descended on me with no warning. Experience has taught me that I am not a good predictor of the future course of my life. It is not just about me that I am a flawed source of what will happen. I have learned through experience that I cannot predict very well what a committee of people, all of whom have good credentials and minds, will finally wind up agreeing on.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
