The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.

- Heredotus -

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I know things, a lot of things. One such thing is that don't know enough things, and so I seek more knowledge of things. I know that's not the best quote ever coined but it says what I feel about my knowledge and desire for it reasonably well. In short, I don't have enough and continuously seek more.

I was watching a couple fellows in the factory working on the Kenworth prime mover pictured. It's a very tricked-out rig and the owner-driver has spent a lot of money turning it into the piece of automotive artwork it is.

It's in to solve some electrical issues and add some more bling and the lads had to dig deep as this truck had to get back on the road quickly - if the wheels don't roll it's a financial liability - however there were knowledge-gaps that delayed the work requiring a good deal scrambling to attain the necessary knowledge. As usual, the chaps got it done and by now it's in the middle of Australia a few thousand kilometres away...and the company now has additional knowledge for the future. A win-win situation.

I don't work in the factory, I'm in management and represent the company to the clients. My knowledge-base is different to the electrical technicians, fabricators, mechanics and diagnostic-technicians. I have a basic understanding of what they do of course, and the jobs and roles I've had, indeed life itself, has taught me many other things that provide value and give me the ability to do my job now.

One of those things isn't Microsoft Excel. I'm what I would call a novice-user of that very powerful software program; novice at best.

I can format a little and even add a few basic formulas although only at an entry-level competency; I guess that's a by-product of having had people to do it for me. I still have if I'm honest, although recently the opportunity arose to do a series of training courses on the software and tomorrow is my first one.

It's called Excel Beginner and is supposed to bring me to a level above where I am now. I'll do the follow-up Excel Intermediate afterwards and then probably leave it at that considering I would typically delegate any spreadsheet creation to others anyway. I made this spreadsheet (part shown) in the image and many like it, it's at about the limit of my ability though and anything more complex gets delegated.

I'm looking forward to the training to be honest. It's a chance to gain some more knowledge, which is always a good thing, and it's a different environment for a day. If you ask me at 11:00 tomorrow I might have a headache through information-overload though so we'll have to see. I hope they have loads of coffee at the training facility although it's in the centre of the city so there's a million cafes around that will full that void if required.

I've done a lot of training in my life with some class-based and some in the field. It's all been valuable though and has added layers of understanding, so far outside of the scope of the training itself usually, and I think that's one of the benefits of an inquisitive mind - The ability to soak in information and knowledge from various sources.

I've known people who are closed to knowledge; they feel they know exactly what they need to and see no need to add to it. I guess if that's a comfortable place for them so be it, I never want to stop learning though and seek knowledge wherever I can which is behind the decision to do the Excel course.

I'll be honest and say I'm not much of a classroom-type but I'll sit there and soak it in and excelerate my understanding of the software. (EXCELerate...See what I did there?) OK, so making up jokes isn't one of my skill-sets, but it was worth a try right?