Imagination is more important than knowledge in the professional and the academic world.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most

The debate regarding whether imagination is more important than knowledge is age old. The importance of neither can ever be overstated. Both, imagination and knowledge play a key role in an individual’s success in life. But I believe that imagination plays a more important role than knowledge in most professions and academic fields. This stance shall be justified in the coming paragraphs.

Knowledge is something that comes with experience. Any person involved in a select profession or in a select academic field over a long period of time, is bound to have acquired a strong grip over the subject matter of the field they are involved in. For instance, an investment banker with an experience of ten years in the field, is bound to have an in depth knowledge of the financial market. What sets a leader or a change-maker apart from an experienced person is their imagination.

I shall now cite the example of Steve Jobs. While Steve Jobs’ technological knowledge is unquestionable, we can confidently state that there are several other individuals on the planet with a comparable grip over technology. What set Steve Jobs apart from these knowledgeable people is his imagination. He managed to take a household item, the mobile phone and convert it into a piece of art, the IPhone. The IPhone combined functionality with aesthetics to provide people with a product comparable to none developed before. He converted a device then capable of performing very limited functions into an incredibly smart and functional device. This is an instance of how imagination played a bigger role than knowledge in the professional sphere.

Even in the academic sphere it takes imagination to challenge the boundaries of existing knowledge and develop new knowledge. Let us consider the example of one of the greatest scientists ever, Albert Einstein. Until the late 19th century, it was a widely accepted fact that light travelled in the form of waves. But experiments in physics towards the end of the 19th century began to show results which could not be explained by the wave nature of light. This was a problem that continued to puzzle the greatest minds of the period. It took a man with imagination to change that. Albert Einstein looked beyond the limits of knowledge at the time and tapped into his imagination to propose that light also possessed particle characteristics. And with that, he revolutionised the world of physics. Again, we can confidently state that there were many other scientists at the time who had knowledge of the subject comparable to Albert Einstein, but none possessed his powers of imagination.

Knowledge is universal and dynamic. It gets re-written everyday by knowledgeable people, with a strong imagination. Thus, we can state that imagination is more important than knowledge in the academic and professional world.