The World is Built on Imagination

Somewhere along the way, I started collecting knowledge.  My brain just soaks it up from all over the place.  And somehow, along the same way, I proved Einstein right....  It all comes down to me having that childhood I discussed in The Time I Learned How to Pretend to Smile.

Einstein once said that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  I know I use that quote a lot, but wow, what a quote....




I never understood the quote until I hit the late teen years.  The fact is, most of science and what we know about the world, comes from people’s imaginations.  When Newton had the Apple fall, he tried to come up with the reason it fell.  He had to imagine some force acting on it, then created the mathematical solution to back up what he had imagined.

The same is true for all the major science, and all engineering.  I realized all this, pretty simply.  There is no way I could build an engine, well maybe I could if I had enough time and the internet, but I couldn’t do it right off.  But I can fix one.  Not because I know how it works, because I can see it work, then imagine how it all fits together.

Imagination is far more important than knowledge, but you do have to have knowledge to grasp stuff.  But once you grasp it, you can use your imagination to see how it all works, then experiment with it building on the knowledge of how the parts work to come up with the whole.

Its one of the main reason nerds are taking over the world.  They have their imagination still intact, it wasn’t culled out of them by ‘reality’.  Having that active imagination is key to thriving in life.  And it filters into every aspect of life if you let it.



One of my main vices is enjoying sci-fi.  I love seeing what people can imagine with the future.  Many people roll their eyes when you mention Star Trek, I know Lisa does, but Star Trek is amazing because there is applied science behind all the principles within it.  Some might be theoretical science, but there are still amazing details that can be back up with real world stuff.

To me, there’s nothing more amazing than someone taking real knowledge, real science, and fleshing out something that can’t exist right now, but could.  In many cases, its only a matter of time until we see things that are only in people’s imaginations.

The reason I became the ‘wise’ person I am, is because I could imagine certain situations.  I, obviously, could not tell you EXACTLY how it feels to menstruate.  But, I can empathize with the chemical changes, the embarrassment, and the monthly cycle.  Through all this, I gained enough of an understanding that I could modify my own mood in such a way that I was enjoyable enough to keep around during those times of not wanting anyone around.

Imagination is the key to all knowledge and understanding.  It is something beautiful what we, as humans, possess, as long as you don’t have it culled out of you.  As a parent, I urge you to never ever cull that imagination out of a child, because it will lead them far beyond anything this life will ever throw at them.

Dreams are what the future is made of.  And the future is coming, no matter what.