A great post by Bill Barnett on learning and business, called The Secret.

The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead long ago made the point that valuable learning comes not from being told a fact. Recited facts are “inert” ideas disconnected from the fullness of our understanding. Valuable learning, says Whitehead, means discovering “living” knowledge: ideas “utilised, tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.” Yet we persist in believing the myth of the special secret.