How many 'experiences' do you need as a writer?

I've heard so many times from these so called educated writers (who have a degree in writing) that in order to become a great writer, you need to experience as many things as possible in life. In their opinion that is what counts the most.

If you haven't worked as many jobs as possible, if you haven't met as many people as possible and if you haven't studied writing, you're not going to become a great writer. You just haven't done enough to earn it or to deserve it.

This hypothesis, as popular it is, in my opinion, isn't true. Even though it is crucial for example to have a certain amount of knowledge about life, it's not needed to know 'everything'. It's not required that you know all those things about how our society 'works'.

It's not required that you have to be that interested in others. It's not necessary that you spend as much time as possible with people so that you could 'learn' from them. It's not really required - and it might not even be good for you.

It's also not required that you have to study drama or writing at a university level. It's a pretty big misconception that you need to study like hell in order to become better at understanding what drama is about.

In my opinion, when it comes to having the abilities, it's much more about having a god given talent than it's about having special experiences in life, meeting all those people that you haven't met or having studied this supposedly mysterious craft.

After all, most of us who have made it through the difficult years of growing up have 'experienced' enough things already. We've had our successes and victories, and we've had also those brutal failures, humiliations and disappointments too.

The truth is that if you didn't learn enough about human nature while you grew up, the chances are likely that you never will. In most cases that's when the really good and the really awful 'experiences' already happened.

So if and when you think about becoming a writer, don't get fooled when people say that you need to learn more about life. Don't believe when they say that you need to meet more people or that you need to study because otherwise you won't write well.

Instead, believe in yourself, since that's what's really required. Know what's important and what's not. Recognize that not everything is worth your time, because in the end, not that many things in this life matter or make sense.