Monday, June 6, 2016

Jane Goodall

By Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
One of my favorite shows on CBC Radio is “Ideas”.  It is a wonderful show that discusses “ideas” with a variety of truly interesting people (and that thankfully does not include the Kardashians).  Last week one of the guests was the noted primatologist (amongst other appropriate labels) Jane Goodall.  The scope of the discussion was wide-ranging and centered on a talk titled “Hope” that she was giving. 
Host Paul Kennedy is a wonderful interviewer with great insights and a curiosity to look beyond the obvious.  The conversation got around to Ms. Goodall’s lack of a formal education.  Perhaps a rude topic to bring up, but also likely a safe one as I suspect Jane Goodall has accomplished so much that she has enough self-esteem that she does not need to be kowtowed to by an obsequious host.  When Paul Kennedy asked what the effect was of Ms. Goodall not having any formal education when she started studying the chimpanzees her response was that a lack of a formal education was an “enormous advantage”!  She continues to state that she was “very glad” that she was not at all formally trained.
I thought it was interesting to contrast that with today’s insistence of only hiring those with the proper formal credentials.  I realize this is something that I have written about many times before, but the points are worth repeating.  You do not need formal credentials in order to be able to think.  The second point being that a formal education can be very limiting as it produces one way of thinking that is often at the expense of other more novel or more appropriate ways of thinking.  Good insights and instincts – whether they be for studying chimpanzees or for managing risk - do not necessarily need formal education in order to exist.
For those who are interested in hearing the full Jane Goodall interview with Paul Kennedy on Ideas, the link is here.