Knowledge is Not a Skill

I used to be friends with a guy, Chad, who was a big movie buff. He knew every thing about movies. He fancied himself to be on par with Martin Scorcese and Quentin Tarantino in terms of being an encyclopedia about film. Although he aspired to be a filmmaker, he actually never made a movie. He did take dozens and dozens of screenwriting classes, and read just about every book there is to know about screenwriting, he never had any of them produced into an actual movie. Even though he knows a lot about movies, he doesn’t write up movie reviews. Basically, he’s a giant encyclopedia of useless movie trivia.

Chad was one of those guys who had mistaken knowledge for skill. Knowing something is not a skill. Knowledge is just information. Turning knowledge into something useful, now that’s skill.

Knowing a lot about movies doesn’t make you a filmmaker. Knowing a lot about business doesn’t make you and entrepreneur. Knowing a lot about art doesn’t make you an artist. If you want to be an entrepreneur, run a business. If you want to be an artist, create art. If Chad had spent more time making some short movies on his own, he might be a filmmaker today instead of being a just a movie buff.