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As a society, we are becoming more advanced than our parents and grandparents. Our children will bypass our achievements, making every generation more productive to society than the one before.

Nonetheless, while the prevalence of higher education is flourishing in present-day society, it's important to realize that other mechanisms of learning are just as essential to our productivity. Formal education may make you book-smart, but as we all know, our lives do not follow textbook examples.

Social experiences teach us street smarts, mental experiences teach us emotional lessons. In conjunction with the ebb and flow of daily life, we develop a widened perspective of what it is to be "smart."

At the age of 40, Jason Lewis is still extending his knowledge after a 13-year journey around the world. Longer than medical school and the completion of a Ph.D., Lewis' adventure has given him a degree perhaps more valuable than a diploma. The journey was supposed to take three and a half years, which seemed feasible.

After two years of planning, Lewis embarked on the adventure with Steve Smith in July 1994. Soon thereafter, they lost their way to the English coastal town of Rye. After navigating their pedal-driven watercraft across the English Channel, and cycling through Portugal, they pedaled across the Atlantic Ocean towards Miami.

Fortunately, the perfect storm didn't arise on their cross-oceanic trip, but Smith did get swept overboard by a large wave. In addition to Mother Nature's push, the two survived an encounter with a whale. After arriving in Miami, they separated and Lewis strapped on inline skates for his journey across the country to San Francisco.