In most professions and academic fields, imagination is more important than knowledge.

The given statement proposes that imagination is regarded more important than knowledge in most academic environments and occupations. Although, this is a generalized statement and may not apply to niche fields, it should hold true in most areas.

As a known fact, knowledge can be obtained very easily, especially in today's electronic era. Obtaining knowledge is indeed arduous, provided one has to cover a field in depth. However, it is not impossible and is mostly mechanical in nature. Procuring knowledge is, in fact, a task able to any layman. It does not imbibe higher thinking qualities, which are imperative to be had in academics and other professions. Contrary to this is the application of imagination. People who can imagine are regarded as very intelligent. In fact, imagination leads to knowledge. All historical discoveries and inventions, which we study today, have been possible because their inventors imagined a new phenomena to exist. Thus, people who can imagine, depict a high value of abstract thinking and are regarded more intelligent and important.

A suitable analogy to this view can be found in the field of academic publishing. Review papers summarize the development of a field since its inception. As their timeline can span from decades to centuries, a lot of information has to be summarized. The authors incessantly work for months to achieve this. Yet, review papers are not of significant importance in comparison to research papers. Research papers are brief. The quantity seems less, but they summarize an inference completely unknown to the whole world. This is possible because scientists imagine a hypothesis and carry out research to prove it. Such work is novel and of high quality. The findings they summarize are learned in the form of knowledge by others. Hence, imaginative works are much more important than those based on knowledge.

A similar phenomena is observed in other fields. William Harvey imagined the body to be similar to a water pumping station. He inferred that blood is transported in the body via a plumbing system. His subsequent experiments described the circulatory system. His imaginative skills laid the foundation for modern medicine. Such a feat could not have been achieved had Harvey studied the literature of that day to gain knowledge.

Hence, wherever possible, imagination is much more important than knowledge. It may not hold true everywhere, but imagination should be preferred than obtaining knowledge.