An educated idiot

Learning from hard work

I REMEMBER standing outside Memorial Hall on the University of Kentucky campus, diploma in hand, my family gathered around me. I had just graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, and I felt 10 feet tall. My father, who spent his life working in a steel mill, asked to see the diploma. He turned it over in his hands, looked it up and down for what felt like a long time, then looked me square in the eye:

“You know what this makes you?” he said. “An educated idiot.”

I have carried that line with me ever since. It stung at the time, but the older I got, the more I understood what he meant. My father never went to college. He learned his trade in a steel mill by showing up, paying attention and putting in the work. He wanted me to have opportunities he did not, so he pushed me to get an education. I will always be grateful for that. But as he reminded me that day, a diploma does not automatically make you wise. Some lessons come from books, but others come from listening to people who have spent years actually doing the work.

Some of the smartest people I know never set foot in a college classroom. They are lineworkers, mechanics and operators who learned by doing. And that knowledge is just as valuable as anything taught in a lecture hall.

But it seems like the days of learning by doing or through trial and error are gone. Social media has given everyone a microphone of sorts, and anyone can say anything. But not everyone knows what they’re talking about. That worries me, especially on a topic like energy, where the truth is much more complicated than any headline.

Supplying reliable energy for our homes, farms and industries is not a simple task. It can be complicated, and it can take more than a Facebook post to explain it and educate people about it. That is why this magazine exists. We want to give you the facts. We want to look at issues from both sides, ask hard questions and think carefully before we speak—or write.

My father taught me that real understanding comes from experience and honesty, not credentials or clicks. That is the standard we intend to hold ourselves to in these pages, issue after issue.