What Does Experience Mean
We explain what experience is and how it relates to knowledge. Also, other uses of the term.
What is the experience?
Generally, when we speak of experience we refer to a type of knowledge that has to do with the procedural (that is, how to do something) instead of with the factual (that is, what is something), and that, therefore, it is obtained through direct experience , rather than through study and abstraction.
Thus, the knowledge obtained in this way is knowledge “a posteriori”, that is, that is obtained after having participated in the real experience, and not “a priori” like the knowledge we obtain through academic or theoretical study. In this, experience and preparation are distinguished, for example in the work and professional world.
In fact, the word experience comes from the Latin word experientia (translatable as "test" or "trial"), linked to peritia ("to be experienced") from where our word "expertise" comes from, and also to "experiment". Thus, it is common when saying that someone has a lot of experience to say that “he is very experienced”.
However, experience is not only linked to practical and applicable knowledge, but also to experiencing the world (that is, experiencing the world). Over time we have the opportunity to go through situations that provide us with empirical knowledge about life, about the human condition , about emotions, and so on.
Thus, the whole of what a person has experienced , the particular journey that he made and the mark that all this has left on his way of being, are also referred to as experiences (or life experience).
See also: Popular knowledge
Other uses of the term experience
Depending on the field, the term experience can have much more specific meanings. To cite just a few examples, we have:
- School experience. In the educational field, the term experience is used to measure the student's transit through the educational institution, beyond what refers to the learning itself of the subjects taught. The school experience has to do with areas of socialization and community formation , as well as the experience of the school environment itself, with regard to emotions, identity , etc.
- User experience . Expression used in computing to refer to the behavior of a system for those who use it. The “user experience” of an application to order food at home, for example, encompasses how well the program behaves, how intuitive it is, what opinion its frequent users deserve, and so on.
- Customer experience . In the field of management of business and management business, this term is used to refer to the performance of the client during his visit to a local or a branch of the company : how long delayed its passage, how well was treated, how satisfied he left the premises, etc.
- Experience in role-playing games. There is talk of experience in RPGs ( Role Playing Game ) to refer to the score that the player receives as he advances in the planned plot of the game , and that later will serve to modify his character at will. This score will be higher or lower depending on the type of choices you make and the challenges you face.
Follow with: Intuitive insight