How many times I hear the argument…«they should pay me for what I know» while all the nearest heads nod in an unanimous affirmation. But here is a thought: imagine any well known genius (da Vinci, Einstein, Curie, i.e) lying in a bed for days, months, years, reading and thinking, standing up only for their nature calls. Imagine them without any writing, painting, invention, discovery. Only their minds will harbor the marvelous we suppose they have conceived. Do you think they should be pay for being…geniuses?

Building knowledge is only part of a very complex formula. Any knowledge is a starting point for many more steps to the final goal: the actions and the products that irradiates the presence of your wisdom. Every bit of knowledge (in any discipline) is present in any of your acts and constructions (hardware, software, formulas, inventions). Even your reading or writing capabilities, and correctness, will show up when you try to communicate to others what is in your mind.

More than a decade ago, when I interviewed candidates for IT positions, I started to ask questions about what they did and how they did it. The questions were around not only the products, and actions they made for hire, but (and probably more important) the things they do for themselves. Usually what any person made in their time conceal their real passion and their knowledge. I appreciate when they share no only their own production, but the «secrets of their trade». That is, the inner principles, patterns, trends, founding the theoretical framework of their intelligence.

Besides that, what remains with others (family, friends, employers) to remember us if not our actions and creations? «Think, construct and share» could be the name of this behavioral pattern of the wisdom. And you don’t have to be one of the geniuses for practice.