Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Inexperience in high-stakes roles can lead to harm, requiring serious preparation.
In plain terms
Don't let amateurs teach dangerous skills or real training.
What can you take from it?
Ensure experts teach critical skills to avoid harm.

Where it applies

  • military
  • medical training
  • education

Putting it to work

  • hire experts
  • validate training
  • prioritize safety

Questions to consider

  • Who is qualified to teach you?
  • What skills should never be taught by amateurs?

Another view

Some experience only comes through doing the job.

More from Robert A. Heinlein

  1. Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.

    Permalink to quote #127
  2. The more you love, the more you can love - and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he co…

    Permalink to quote #129
  3. Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the…

    Permalink to quote #126

Related quotes

  1. No, gentlemen, if I am to be shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet.

    Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson quote #3
  2. To expect ... the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, w…

    George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #8
  3. We are safer, the region is safer, the world is safer without him.

    Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein quote #23