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atomic knowledge
200 pages, Paperback
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 24, 2016
Title: Atomic Knowledge; creativity at the speed of shock
Author: Samson Adah Paul
Place of Publication: Nigeria
Publisher: Identity Books
Date of Publication: 2015
Number of Pages: 194
ISBN: 978 978 088 477 2
INTRODUCTION
Atomic knowledge is authored by Samson Adah Paul. Its 194 pages are divided into 14 chapters some of which have unique names like Uni-cemeteries, Mindicap and Academic witchcraft.
The main thrust of the book is that in this age, if you cannot employ your mind then you are not ripe enough for employment. Machines are getting smarter by the day and the time will come when one machine can render thousands of individuals jobless. Only creativity can save the working man from redundancy and such creativity is unleashed, not by knowledge and facts but by research and secrets.
Chapter 1 is titled Uni-cemeteries and it says that it is a shame that many decades after independence Africa remains absolutely ‘out-dependent’ – dependent on other nations. Rather than produce elites that society will depend on, our schools produce parasites that are dependent on society. Rather than mind-farms that should cultivate men’s seeds our schools have become mind-mines that kill the creative energies of students. We seem to go to schools so as to kidnap certificates.
The author introduces the concept of atomic creativity and states that there is a difference between the age of Analogue creativity when business was done at the speed of snail and the age of digital creativity were business was done at the speed of thought. The future, the emerging age, will be one of atomic creativity, business will be done at the speed of shock. He also says the proof of education is not in great speaking and dressing skills. It is in great thinking, creating and serving skills. Illiteracy is the inability to communicate with the world. Most educated Africans suffer from Ill-literacy, which is the inability to contribute to the world.
Chapter 4 is titled academic witchcraft and it reveals the wrong notions modern education implants in our minds. Notions like, ‘further your education so as to get better jobs or higher wages.’ He feels increase in knowledge should be for the betterment of humanity and society at large rather than the individual. If the fruit of education is solely financial then we have missed it, education should birth creativity.
Mindicap is the title of chapter 5 and it starts off stating, ‘handicap is the state of body disability; while mindicap is the state of mental disability.’ Mindicap is the inability to put the mind to work. Africa is in a state of underdevelopment because its graduates have stopped putting their mind to work.
Other interesting viewpoints contained in Atomic Knowledge are; don’t get an education because you want employment, get educated because you want to be productive. Without 1% of the education and knowledge available to us today, our ancestors still managed to process cassava into garri, beans into moi moi, grass into thatch roof wood into mortar and pestle. Despite our access to information and education we have neither improved upon their inventions nor added new inventions to what they left us. All meals in Nigeria today are inventions of our ancestors we have not added anything new to the menu. Our fore fathers will be biting their fingers in regret and shame.
Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers were all school dropouts but they ended up being the greatest creative minds of their time. Nigeria’s problem is not about school dropouts it is about mind dropouts. Biological coma is a state of being dead while alive, Africa is in an intellectual coma, which is a state of unproductivity even when filled with sufficient knowledge to be productive.
Samson Paul wishes that academic certificates were tagged with expiry date, if a man can’t invent anything or improve on an existing invention or service after a given time of graduation, such a person should lose his certificate. Nigeria’s problem isn’t about infrastructure it is about humanstructure. Infrastructure is basic amenities for comfortable living while humanstructure is the basic mentality for productive living.
He says Africa’s challenge isn’t scarcity it is poverty. Scarcity is inadequate provision for man while scarcity is inadequate production by man. Scarcity is unavailability of jobs for men while poverty is the unavailability of men for jobs. Scarcity is what man needs that he lacks while poverty is what man has that he locks.
Poverty is cured by provision, provision is made by revelation, and revelation is gotten on an altar of research, Africa needs to research to get out of poverty.
Our approach to development has been wrong. We have been trying to cure madness by changing the madman’s rags. It is high time we adopted the cure the madman’s mind approach. The man is not mad because of the rags he wears, he is mad because of the mind he has lost!
There are 3 types of independence, Africa seemingly has gained independence but what we have is political independence. We have not received financial independence – power to meet ones needs, and industrial independence – power to breed ones seeds.
Samson Adah Paul humorously claims that his genotype is HD – Human Development and his blood group is W – wisdom. This book arguably makes good his claim. Get it if you can, it is worth it.
From somewhere out there,
Michael Ombu
Author: Samson Adah Paul
Place of Publication: Nigeria
Publisher: Identity Books
Date of Publication: 2015
Number of Pages: 194
ISBN: 978 978 088 477 2
INTRODUCTION
Atomic knowledge is authored by Samson Adah Paul. Its 194 pages are divided into 14 chapters some of which have unique names like Uni-cemeteries, Mindicap and Academic witchcraft.
The main thrust of the book is that in this age, if you cannot employ your mind then you are not ripe enough for employment. Machines are getting smarter by the day and the time will come when one machine can render thousands of individuals jobless. Only creativity can save the working man from redundancy and such creativity is unleashed, not by knowledge and facts but by research and secrets.
Chapter 1 is titled Uni-cemeteries and it says that it is a shame that many decades after independence Africa remains absolutely ‘out-dependent’ – dependent on other nations. Rather than produce elites that society will depend on, our schools produce parasites that are dependent on society. Rather than mind-farms that should cultivate men’s seeds our schools have become mind-mines that kill the creative energies of students. We seem to go to schools so as to kidnap certificates.
The author introduces the concept of atomic creativity and states that there is a difference between the age of Analogue creativity when business was done at the speed of snail and the age of digital creativity were business was done at the speed of thought. The future, the emerging age, will be one of atomic creativity, business will be done at the speed of shock. He also says the proof of education is not in great speaking and dressing skills. It is in great thinking, creating and serving skills. Illiteracy is the inability to communicate with the world. Most educated Africans suffer from Ill-literacy, which is the inability to contribute to the world.
Chapter 4 is titled academic witchcraft and it reveals the wrong notions modern education implants in our minds. Notions like, ‘further your education so as to get better jobs or higher wages.’ He feels increase in knowledge should be for the betterment of humanity and society at large rather than the individual. If the fruit of education is solely financial then we have missed it, education should birth creativity.
Mindicap is the title of chapter 5 and it starts off stating, ‘handicap is the state of body disability; while mindicap is the state of mental disability.’ Mindicap is the inability to put the mind to work. Africa is in a state of underdevelopment because its graduates have stopped putting their mind to work.
Other interesting viewpoints contained in Atomic Knowledge are; don’t get an education because you want employment, get educated because you want to be productive. Without 1% of the education and knowledge available to us today, our ancestors still managed to process cassava into garri, beans into moi moi, grass into thatch roof wood into mortar and pestle. Despite our access to information and education we have neither improved upon their inventions nor added new inventions to what they left us. All meals in Nigeria today are inventions of our ancestors we have not added anything new to the menu. Our fore fathers will be biting their fingers in regret and shame.
Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers were all school dropouts but they ended up being the greatest creative minds of their time. Nigeria’s problem is not about school dropouts it is about mind dropouts. Biological coma is a state of being dead while alive, Africa is in an intellectual coma, which is a state of unproductivity even when filled with sufficient knowledge to be productive.
Samson Paul wishes that academic certificates were tagged with expiry date, if a man can’t invent anything or improve on an existing invention or service after a given time of graduation, such a person should lose his certificate. Nigeria’s problem isn’t about infrastructure it is about humanstructure. Infrastructure is basic amenities for comfortable living while humanstructure is the basic mentality for productive living.
He says Africa’s challenge isn’t scarcity it is poverty. Scarcity is inadequate provision for man while scarcity is inadequate production by man. Scarcity is unavailability of jobs for men while poverty is the unavailability of men for jobs. Scarcity is what man needs that he lacks while poverty is what man has that he locks.
Poverty is cured by provision, provision is made by revelation, and revelation is gotten on an altar of research, Africa needs to research to get out of poverty.
Our approach to development has been wrong. We have been trying to cure madness by changing the madman’s rags. It is high time we adopted the cure the madman’s mind approach. The man is not mad because of the rags he wears, he is mad because of the mind he has lost!
There are 3 types of independence, Africa seemingly has gained independence but what we have is political independence. We have not received financial independence – power to meet ones needs, and industrial independence – power to breed ones seeds.
Samson Adah Paul humorously claims that his genotype is HD – Human Development and his blood group is W – wisdom. This book arguably makes good his claim. Get it if you can, it is worth it.
From somewhere out there,
Michael Ombu
March 28, 2014
great book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 21, 2014good
Want to read
December 29, 2018Good
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews