Theory is valuable only when one must struggle against it

Evidence

I want to suggest a different metaphor for theoretical work: the metaphor of struggle, of wrestling with the angels. The only theory worth having is that which you have to fight off, not that which you speak with profound fluency. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the reader’s lifelong-learning purpose — a philosophy of how one genuinely assimilates ideas as opposed to merely fluently reciting them. — connects to: Practice undermines theory from within as a destructive element — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1100; No theory can exempt itself from the partial unfitness it attributes to other strategies — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1771; Theory use stays healthy only when ready to jettison it — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 2423 (+2 more)
• SEED: An essay or personal note on ‘wrestling with the angels’ as a method for lifelong learning: the contrast between fluency and genuine intellectual struggle.