Understanding what knowledge is to become smarter.
I will talk about what knowledge really is. How knowledge is created from information. What it means to be smart. And how knowing these things will make you smarter by the end of the post.
What is knowledge?
The concept of knowledge is more complicated than you might think. I feel like a lot of people have misconceptions around this.
Knowledge consists of different concepts: Datapoint, Data, Information and Understanding. We need to go over these quickly for you to understand what knowledge actually is.
Let's say you have 6 dots:
Datapoint: 6
A Datapoint is a single independent value.
Data: Image_6_purple_circles_ 2 by 3_Foundersblog_UNILIGHT_Blog_post.
Data is the collection of datapoints from which we could create information.
Information: This is a blog post image of 6 purple dots arranged 2 by 3 on the UNILIGHT foundersblog.
Information is the the value resulting from connecting data in the correct way.
Knowledge: The understanding of how the image with the purple dots relates to this blog post. (simple form)
Knowledge is the matrix of understanding on how information relates to each other.
Put simple: Knowledge can only exist from a series of connections between information. It is not information itself, but the understanding of how the information relates to each other.
We have been over most concepts concerning knowledge, one thing I would like to explain in a little more detail is what understanding means.
Understanding is the proces of connecting information together in the right way with the goal to create new knowledge
From information to knowledge
So how in the world does previous information make you smarter? It does not. What it does, is to make you understand this part of the post. I promise, I’ll get to the point soon but you need to understand of few things before we get to it. This part will make you understand how your brain deals with the information you receive and how it gets processed. Once we got this down, I’ll tell you how you can hack this process a bit which will make you smarter.
As you can see on the image:
1: New information is perceived by your senses.
2: Your brain comes into action and tries to understand the information. Your brain does this by connecting the things you already know with the new information.
3.1: If you don’t understand the information (your knowledge can’t connect really well because you lack the right knowledge for proper connections), your brain will send it through to your memory (sort of).
3.2: If you do understand the information (your knowledge can connect to the information), the information will translate itself into new knowledge.
To conclude what I have said:
Information + applied knowledge (understanding) = More knowledge, if the applied knowledge manages to connect to the information in the right way.
Being smart?
First of all, I would like to tell you what being smart is about. From this, we can put knowledge and being smart together to understand how this information can be applied to become smarter yourself.
Being smart is way different from being intellectual or gifted (in some way). Being smart is not knowing a lot or being able to do hard things. Being smart comes to expression in the learning process and your ability to develop knowledge from the knowledge you already have.
Let me explain why.
Say you have two different individuals.
Person 1 has been studying for 40 years, read thousands of books and is seen as some kind of respected professor. Further, this person has not really accomplished anything to great in his life. Mostly has taught students and written a few papers (nothing too special).
Person 2 is 25 years of age and has not been to school or university, he gained knowledge over time from reading a few books and other sources. But person 2 has invented a new way of filtering water …
Who from both is the smartest person?
I think we can all agree person 2 is way smarter than person 1.
Why?
Person 1 has so much knowledge but can’t develop new knowledge from it efficiently (which could mean it’s not really knowledge but rather a huge memory of information). Person 2 has so little knowledge compared to person one but manages to create from acquired knowledge.
To conclude:
Being smart is the efficiency of how you translate information to a new understanding, and the amount of progress you make to create new knowledge from the knowledge you already have.
Becoming smarter knowing this.
So now that we know what knowledge and being smart is. We can come to the point.
1: Learn the right way.
The fact that you now know what knowledge is, and the misconception between knowledge and information has been removed. This alone makes you smarter already, not more knowledgeable or information full. Why?
Because of this knowledge, you can now understand better what to focus on when you learn.
It is not about the information you proces, it is about how you proces the information to translate it into new knowledge.
You can read an entire book and learn nothing, or you could have read one page and gotten a new insight.
2: Think more and better.
Everyone has knowledge already, but most of us don’t put it to work enough.
To create new knowledge from the information you already have, you need to process your current knowledge in a better way. As you now know, knowledge is not something fixed like information. It is a matrix of information flow.
The only way to put your information to work is to reflect (process) on the information you have. This is what we call thinking.
Thinking = Processing information.
But thinking is not enough. You have to think the right way.
Thinking correctly is reflecting on the information you have and taking multiple perspectives on how the information could fit together.
To do this you need an inherent open-mindedness towards information you receive. Being able to explore all options on how this information could be linked to information you already have. This open-mindedness will therefore make you understand things easier because you let information flow free. And understanding things easier makes you smarter.
3: Let it flow.
This relates to taking multiple perspectives and open-mindedness. You don’t want to be stuck in one perspective.
Most people become used to seeing everything from one perspective, and try to apply the information they receive to this specific perspective. They always fall back on the same way of thinking which just can’t envelop all information in understanding. This is exactly what makes a person stupid. This is a choice they make or is a result of ignorance.
So why do they fall back on the same way of thinking all the time?
The answer to this question is, because they think they are sure of the conclusion they have come to.
If you want to be smart, never be a 100% sure of anything.
This allows you to truly and openly process the information you receive without previously build restriction to possibilities. Because of this mindset, information therefore will be applied to way more concepts which results in way more new insights which then eventually leads to being smart.
These are subconscious processes, so if you can’t really relate to this, that’s normal.
Conclusion
By understanding what knowledge is and how to deal with information you can become smarter easily. It is not only about the information you get but the way you process the information. You can read this text and do nothing with it = waste of time. Or you can read and process it again to understand it more profoundly = become smarter.
Let me know what you think about it, has it made you smarter??
I could write an article about why most people have difficulties becoming smarter soon. Let me know if you want me to write it.