I admit it. I have kept almost every textbook from my college years. There were a scant few that didn’t quite make the cut, but most have stood the tests of time and the occasional borrowing colleague. On top of those, I am a sucker for a college library book sale, and have acquired just as many more for courses I wish I could have taken. From philosophy to economics, from engineering to management (but not, alas, multivariable calculus) most have continued to serve me well.
I had the chance to really dig into a few for a recent project, and found something interesting.
I had several books that languished for want of the right project, and a some newer ones that I picked up a few years ago. As I searched through them, the ones that I personally used in college held more than just the words on the pages. As a re-read them, I began recalling lectures and labs that I had long forgotten. Naturally, these types of memories were lacking in the books that I had simply bought on a whim.
As with any book, I was also looking at the same words with many more years of insight and experience behind me. As they say, you always get something new out of a book when you read it again.
They also say that if you don’t use your knowledge, you will lose it. And this is partially true. Without returning to my books – or other resource – I could not have solved the problem I was facing. But with just enough recollection to fill in beyond the mere textbook answers, I was able to create a much richer answer to the problem.
I know many people who couldn’t wait to discard their textbooks – either because they needed the money or simply wanted to put a particularly difficult class entirely behind them. I suggest holding on to them for a while. They take up space, are hard to move, and may end up just collecting dust. But when you really need them, it may make sense to read through them again. You never know what you will find hiding in plain sight.
Jason Burke is a Project Manager at Project Management Underground, his experience ranges from engineering design (literally underground) in a California gold mine and a Montana platinum mine to management of a variety of land development projects. He enjoys sharing his experiences and insights with others, especially those in the engineering industries. But anyone can benefit from business management “best practices” as well.
Image © somegeekintn and used with permission
It depends though, my work in social media, is so different from my college courses on Maths
(including multivariable calculus, though that was my least fav topic)
Not much point saving those books unless I plan some work in Maths or Statistics field.
@Priyanka – Sure, there is no doubt that many people move into fields that are unrelated to their university courses. Consider though that many insights in a given discipline come from synthesizing concepts from another.
By all means, clear your shelves of things (books or otherwise) that simply aren’t going to be pertinent. But I’ve found that I return to some books years later, and am glad that I kept them.
You mention that social media is so much different than advanced math. But what is marketing (and its associated research) based on? I would say that even if you do not actually use your advanced education to literally develop and solve equations, you at least use the insights to better conceptualize marketing and social media problems – that are based on statistics and multi-variable dependencies. It may just be that a future problem requires your specific background…would it be worth it to have that ready reference at hand?
Good luck in your work, and thanks for the input.