“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

The title of this post is a statement on a wall in the movie Tomorrowland. I wanted to use it as the motto for my nascent company, and researched its origin to give a proper citation. I found that the phrase came from a quote by Albert Einstein [ I did not see the citation in the movie]. 

During an interview with the Saturday Evening Post in 1929, he said:

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world” [emphasis added].

Imagination is an important tool for conceptualizing solutions to problems. In an article in this past weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, Frank Wilczek cites theoretical physicists who acknowledge the role of imagination in their work, and he wonders if scientific imagination can be taught.

I think the playground of imagination is not just for scientists, children, and artists. The door is open to anyone who wants to solve a problem, improve a process, or make the world better. Every time we ask “what if," or link seemingly disparate ideas, or create new objects from old materials, we crack open imagination’s door to help us envision an outcome or object that does yet not exist. The next step is to make the imagined something real. 

Taking a concept from imagination to reality takes knowledge, skills, and time that are not always available together in the workplace. I will save the discussion of that idea for another post.

Please send me an email at bengray@live.com if you have a long comment, or an example of imagination’s role in the workplace.

"What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck" 

The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929), p. 17. 

“Wilczek’s Universe: The Scientific Imagination” by Frank Wilczek

The Wall Street Journal (4-5 June 2016), p. C4