The Gap Widens

Driving home today, I began to consider how as the world shrinks and the access to immediate information via the internet grows, the gap between the skilled and unskilled also grows. Reading J.J. Abrams in this month's issue of Wired magazine and then listening to the profound talk by Ravi Zacharias delivered at the Mormon Tabernacle several years ago on the topic of "Who Is Jesus" somehow brought this thought home for me.

Fewer and fewer are the people that are truly skilled. Now, I'm not referring to talent, because many are the talented. But few are those that have truly developed the talent into something deep and truly valuable. It is so easy today to know a little about a lot. It is so easy to dabble and sound informed. Everything is at our fingertips via a quick wikipedia search such that deep thinking and true knowledge are greatly lasting.

It seems we are breeding a generation of shallow thinkers who are easily entertained by inch deep trivia and insignificant entertainment. I myself have fallen prey far too often to the titillation of mindless minutia. I am quite adept at sounding informed and can even hold people's attention....for a few moments. But am I any deeper then the most recent bit of news trivia?

In this environment, I think the people who truly dedicate themselves to develop skills and deep knowledge will take a giant step forward. In a culture that is a million miles wide and an inch deep, those who will be most influential are those that know how to navigate the deep but often unexplored pools. It is not just the possession of information — that is no longer valuable in our current context — instead, it is the ability to think deeply, make connections between ideas, navigate the waters of moral concepts, and weave together the deluge into a meaningful stream.