Some recent comments from a member of one of the teams I work with reminded me again of how important it is to always keep learning.  People who think they have all of the answers tend to be the most ill-informed and self-absorbed individuals you will ever find and attempting to open their eyes is an exercise in frustration.  To resurrect some old farm wisdom: never try to teach a pig to sing, it just wastes your time and it annoys the pig.  Let the dinosaurs have their illusions as the world will pass them by soon enough.

If you think you know everything there is to know about whatever field you are in, check again.  Odds are that there is something you’ve overlooked or some aspect to your knowledge that is out of date.  More than likely there are entire fields of study that are closely related to your chosen path that you have no knowledge of. You might not even know that you you don’t know!

If you really are that good at what you do then seek out something where you are utterly clueless but have an interest and study it inside and out.  Preferably choose something that is outside of your professional domain if at all possible.  It is amazing how often completely unrelated disciplines intertwine once you start learning them.  Remember that ‘creativity’ is merely the ability to draw often unrelated items and concepts together for a purpose and the broader your mind, the more things you can find to put together.

Always keep learning, keep your eyes and ears open and never assume you have all of the answers.