The true benefit of philosophy comes from the living of ones life, from gaining experiences of your own and reflecting on those experiences in light of what you are learning from the experience of others.  The temptation of philosophy is to look upon it as only the accumulation of knowledge, of perspectives, as if simply holding in your brain, if one could imagine, all the knowledge of the greatest thinkers, would in and of itself, cause you to be complete or give you the ability to live well, in this real world.  That is only a safe space, where we protect ourselves, from the risks of making decisions in our life right now with real consequences, the application of this philosophy.  What we see as being safe ultimately is dangerous.  The danger is from staying inside where it’s safe rather than becoming an actor who acts upon objects, who sinks or swims, who experiences the exhilaration that arises from being bandied about between both fear and victory.  Without living, the true benefit of philosophy stays sealed up in a bottle.  Without living, you are just another “expert”.  Through living you gain the hard won but calm assurance that experience provides and the “experts” will never understand.  Actually, you gain this when you reflect upon those experience, when you mix philosophy with life and life with philosophy.