Growth and giving

It seems to me that there are two central parts of human life.

First, there is growth, where we accumulate knowledge and learn new skills. These we then apply to the world to solve problems.

Then there is giving. Giving happens when we share our learnings with others. We give back to the community.

Normally, growth comes first. It’s when we are young and attend classes in a school, for instance. But as societies change, and the demanded skills of tomorrow may very well be different from those of today, it becomes increasingly important to interchangeably switch between the two. The young teach the old and the old learn from the young.

To me, the rapid change in society, due to many well-known forces such as advancements in information technology and globalization, may well force us to reconsider how we look at growth and giving.

Indeed, former hierarchies and order of things happening may well have been disrupted for good.

So what does this mean? Well, if you are predominantly focusing on growing, maybe now is the time to give! And equally true applies to the reverse: if you’re only giving, maybe you need to grow.