The only real way to acquire wisdom

The only real way to acquire wisdomThe only real way to acquire wisdomIts often been saidthatwisdom is the art of knowing that you are elend wise.The great philosopher Socrates famouslydenied being wisemora than two thousand years ago, and since then, we have taken him at his word.There is a truth there, but thatdefinitionisnt very helpful.I mean, Im all for respecting uncertainty, doubting oneself, and realizing the limitations of my mind, but I think we cando better. Maybeeven take a few steps forward.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraMore importantly, I think we can create our own definition that separates it from just mere intelligence and then use that definition to illustrate why the distinction matters and how we can practically engage it in everyday life.Intelligence is commonlyassociatedwith knowing something.Often,it also means that we can confidentlyapply what we know i n a particular context.Wisdom, to me, is different. Its differentbecauseit has more dimensions.Wisdom not only knows, but it also understands.Andthedistinction between knowing and understanding is what makes things interesting.Knowing is generally factual. You have learned a particular kind of knowledge and you know its truth as it applies to a particular problem.Understanding, however, is more fluid.You have learned a particular kind of knowledge, but you dont see it as a fact or a truth applied rigidly to one thing.Rather,youunderstand that knowledges essence and you can see how it relates to everything else,withnuancesand contradictions included.The difference issubtlebutpotent.Whileintelligence gives you specificutility,wisdom inspires flexibleversatility.Itprovides a more textured lens for interactingwith reality,very much changing how you think.Building relational knowledgeEvery time you have aperspective shift, big or small, you gain knowledge.You learn something new that you maybe didnt know before, and as a result, your mind then changes itself regarding whatever that knowledge pertains to in the future. Next time, there is an added clarity.If the acquired knowledge is understood, rather than just known, however, there is another step that occurs every time your mind shifts.If youre a student, for example, and youre writing an exam, and its a difficult one, lets say you decide to cheat. Now, unfortunately, when you cheat, you get caught. It leads to a failing grade in the course.The thing to learn from this experience that would add to your intelligence would be the fact that cheating on an exam has consequences, andthose consequences, whileimprobable,have adisproportionatelynegative impact on your life.Its simply not worth it in the future.The extra step that would translate the intelligence in that particular scenario into broadly applicable wisdomwould be to realize that not only isnot worth cheating on an exam due to the harsh consequences,but tha tmost things in the world that carrydisproportionatelycostly risks should be approachedcautiously, whether they be financial decisions or partieal life choices.This is, of course, a very simplifiedscenario,butthe point is thatknowledge is relational and the understanding of wisdom recognizes that rather than treating it simply as an isolated information point.Instead of the lesson being that cheating is bad, youcombine the essence of the knowledge learned from that experience with yourexistinglatticeworkof previous knowledgeto reallyhammerhome the underlying principle.This way, you understand how taking shortcuts may harm your personal relationships, how your new understanding of risk may inform your business practices, andhowwhat you say matters beyond why you say it.Knowledge is always bestleveragedwhen its connected to other knowledge.Creating an information networkInnetwork science, there is a now-famous effect calledMetcalfeslaw.It was first used to describe the growth of telec ommunication networks, but over time, the application has been extended beyond that.It essentially states thatthe value of a network rises with the number of connected users.In any network, each thing of interest is a node and the connection between such things is a link.The number ofnodesthemselves doesnt necessarily reflect the value of a network, but the number of links between those nodes does.For example, ten independent phones by themselves arent really all that useful. What makes them useful is the connection that they have to other phones.And the more they are connected to other phones, the more useful they are because the more access they have to each other.Well,the relationship between different kinds of knowledge in our mind works the same way.The moreconnectedthey are to each other, the more valuable the information network that we have in our brain is.Every time you gain knowledge, you are either isolating it within a narrow contextwhere its addressing a particular prob lem,or you are breaking it down a little further so that you can connect that knowledge to the already existing information youveaccumulatedso far.In this scenario,intelligence is found within a pocket of information by itself.Wisdom, however, is accumulated in the process of creating new links.Each node of knowledge in your mind is a mental model of some aspect of reality, butthatmental model isnt fully complete untilits been stripped down andre-contextualizedin light of the information contained in the other mental models of knowledge around it.The only way to acquire wisdom is to thinkin terms of the whole information network rather than theindividualnodes that it contains.Thats wherenuanceis considered, thats where the respect for complexity comes in, andthats how specialized information finds its flexibility.Thestrength of your mind depends on the value of your information network.The takeawayThequestfor wisdom is an age-old effort. Its one many have recommended.Its been said t o be as useful for finding innercontentmentas it is for fueling external successes.Its a moreprudentway of interacting with reality.While not everyones definition of wisdom is the same, it doesnt seem toofar-fetchedto distinguish it by a mode of deeper understanding.One that goes beyond just the knowing we commonly associate with intelligence.When we think of theacquisitionofintelligence, we think of new information inspired bya perspective-shift that tells us a truth about one aspect of reality.Wisdom goes furtherthanthat.Itstripsthat same informationdown to its essence so that it can relate the underlying principle of that knowledge to the existing information networkthat exists in the mind.Its theconnectednessof this network that separates it from mere intelligence.The more links between each pocket of information, the more valuable the whole network will be whentacklingany other problem.It adds an extra dimension to each mental model contained in the mind.Simply knowing this doe snt make a person more equipped tosoakin wisdom, but withawareness and practice, new thinking patterns can be created.The way you do this shapes everything else. Its worth working on.This article originally appeared on Design Luck.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people