"Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles"

The ancients regarded "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles" as a pursuit. Because both of these can broaden people's horizons and increase their knowledge and abilities. So are the two equally important? Is there any difference?

If we simply talk about which is more important, I think "traveling thousands of miles" is much more important than "reading thousands of books".

You can refute me this way: If a person doesn’t read any books and only travels thousands of miles, he will not become a talent. This is a sentence pattern that we often use to argue when discussing issues, and it is also a very useful sentence pattern. But putting it here doesn't seem to have much effect.

Many people in the business community have come to the conclusion that at the beginning of a business venture, those with a lower level of education are often more likely to succeed. Some people have also made statistics. Among the well-known corporate managers in the country, those with a first degree or junior college degree or below have an absolute advantage. The situation around us has repeatedly proven that many very innovative business owners have never attended high school. I'm afraid this cannot be summed up in a single word using special circumstances. On the contrary, a person who studies hard behind closed doors has become the object of our ridicule for a long time. Can we say that traveling is more important than studying?

“Traveling” I understand means learning through practice. Human evolution begins with walking. From the trees to the ground, the first thing our ancestors learned was to walk. The purpose of walking is to get more food and find a safe place to rest. It also broadens our horizons and learns a lot of useful knowledge. Dayu realized the flood control principle of "it is better to dredge and not to block" while following his father's control of floods. Confucius attached great importance to the role of practice in learning, and confirmed what he learned by traveling around the country to govern the country. Li Shizhen, Xu Xiake, Marco Polo, Darwin, and Columbus all wrote magnificent works or made major discoveries by "traveling". It can be seen that "traveling thousands of miles" is much more important than "reading thousands of books".

Use an analogy to the relationship between "reading" and "traveling": "Reading thousands of books" is like seeing the golden mountain of knowledge and ability through a window. But if you want to truly get the golden mountain of knowledge and ability, It also depends on getting out of the door and “traveling thousands of miles”.

On the one hand, reading can increase my knowledge and learn from other people's experiences, but at the same time, it also puts a "tightening band" on your head (this is a characteristic of experience. The more experience, the better people will be. The more constraints the mind has, the worse the sense of innovation will be). After "reading thousands of books", you can only "travel thousands of miles", go out and take a look for yourself, and experience the scenes described in the book. Only then will you find that what is said in the book is not one thousandth of what you experience, and at the same time, it will make you feel uncomfortable. You understand the author's feelings about this situation and compare it with your own feelings, thereby amplifying your knowledge. Only then can the effect of reading be reflected. So: Reading is like a magnifying glass. No matter whether the knowledge in your mind is "true" or "false", it will magnify it several times (of course, the more you read, the greater the magnification).

If you only study but cannot travel, you will be more and more constrained. It is like eating too much food that cannot be digested and absorbed. It can only be a burden, which is not only useless but also "harmful".