Imagination Is More Important than Knowledge? No, It's Not.

One time I wanted to figure out what’s more important, when it comes to throwing a shot put: Having strong shoulder muscles or having lungs.

So I did a bunch of shoulder exercises for a few weeks and then I went down to the track. I lined up against a person who had no lungs, and BAM! I won by a mile. The other person, who for some reason never moved, made a poor showing.

Now, of course, you’ve probably heard that strong shoulder muscles are key to shot put. I’ve been reading a lot about it, and the websites, they mention shoulders, legs, core, etc. etc. There’s all sorts of information about what you need to do to make it to the top.

I’m here to tell you: They’re all wrong. Lungs. Lungs are the key to being good at shot put. Muscles and stuff are also important, but without lungs you’re nowhere. I might investigate the intestines next, we’ll see, they might also help.

The weird thing is, everyone at the elite level of shot put has lungs. I haven’t checked out the state-level champions, but definitely in the olympics, there has never been a medal winner who had no lungs. So on one hand, they’re obviously important, right? But on the other hand, I can see why the magazines and website and stuff don’t mention lungs. I mean, it’s basically something you just overlook. You’re like, yeah yeah, lungs are cool, I like lungs, I got nothing against them, but the greatest shot put winners are huge and strong, so hugeness and strength must be the key to shot put.

No. Lungs. Focus on having lungs first, then work on strength, technique, flexibility, etc. Good advice from me to you.

Part 2

I’m not just a shot putter, I’m also an intellectual. So let’s talk about how to be good at feats of mental power. Your mind = about to be blown.

Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” No it’s not. Trust me. I did another experiment.

Instead of shot put, I held a physics contest. I studied a bunch of physics for a few weeks, then I went down to the library and had a physics-creativity contest with someone who knew absolutely nothing about physics. I won in another walk off! The other person was like “uhhh..” and I was like “force, mass, right hand rule,” and stuff like that.

That was pretty cool, but I decided to take it to the next level. I found someone who has an incredible imagination, way better than mine. So now it’s imagination on her side, knowledge on mine, who wins?

In a word, me. She was like “what if we used magnets to make wings for horses?” and I was like “what?” Then I was like “nice thinking for a nine year old, but you need to study more physics. Love you, bye!” Then she went on a field trip with her 3rd grade class.

Again, the weird thing is, everyone at the elite level of physics has a lot of knowledge. They all know a bunch of math, and, like, orbits and stuff like that. So I can see why Einstein didn’t give knowledge much credit. It’s just like lungs. You just overlook it. You’re like, yeah, knowledge is pretty sweet, I like it, but the greatest physicists are get ahead of the pack because they’re more imaginative, so imagination is probably the key to doing the physics.

No. It’s about knowledge. Take it from me. Focus on having some knowledge, then use your imagination and creativity and stuff. Just like you should focus on having lungs, then move on to working out and training.

Because here’s the bottom line: you can’t be king or queen of shot put without lungs and you can’t be a god of physics without knowledge. Just sayin’.

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