14.09.2026
Captain’s Blog – August 2026
By Capt. Waldemar Wichmann. MM, MSc
Does twenty years of experience necessarily mean twenty years of learning?
Experience is one of the most valuable assets a professional can possess. It allows us to recognise patterns, anticipate problems and draw upon lessons that cannot always be learned from books. Yet experience carries a less obvious risk: the more experienced we become, the easier it is to assume that what worked yesterday will continue to work tomorrow.
During my years at sea, experience was essential. No textbook could reproduce the accumulated knowledge gained from different vessels, ports, crews, emergencies and operational challenges. But the maritime industry never stood still. Regulations changed. Technology evolved. Safety and environmental expectations increased. New equipment and working practices appeared. What had worked perfectly well earlier in a career could eventually become outdated.
The problem, therefore, is not experience itself. The problem begins when experience becomes certainty.
We have probably all encountered the phrase, “We’ve always done it this way.” Sometimes there is a perfectly good reason for doing something in an established way. But experience should provide evidence for our decisions, not immunity from questioning them.
This applies far beyond shipping. Experienced professionals develop mental shortcuts, routines and assumptions that help them work efficiently. These are valuable until circumstances change. At that point, the ability to reconsider what we already know may become just as important as acquiring new knowledge.
This is where continuing education can become uncomfortable, and valuable.
Many MLA College students return to higher education after years, sometimes decades, of professional practice. They do not arrive as blank pages waiting to be filled with knowledge. They bring substantial experience into their studies. That experience should be used, but it should also be tested.
An academic argument, a piece of research or another professional perspective may challenge something that has seemed obvious for years. The natural reaction can be to defend what experience has taught us. A more useful response may be to ask: What if the circumstances have changed? What if there is better evidence? What if I need to reconsider what I thought I knew?
Professional development is therefore not simply about accumulating more knowledge as our careers progress. Sometimes it requires something more difficult: examining our established assumptions and being prepared to revise them.
Experience should make us better professionals. But perhaps its greatest value comes when we remain willing to challenge it.
