noun. facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
To know. To be familiar with. To be aware. To understand.
We all know a lot… Or we like to think we do… However, the more we know, the more we realise what we do not know…
We all read a lot… Or we like to think we do… However, the more we read, the more we realise what we have not read…
We all reflect a lot… Or we like to think we do… However, the more we reflect, the more we realise what we have not reflected on…
Thus knowledge for me is a cycle, an ebb and flow. Moving in and out of knowing, being familiar with, aware of and understanding something or someone… to not knowing, not being aware and not understanding.
Knowledge is stepping into the light, out of the darkness, and then the lights being switched off, until daylight emerges once again. Knowledge is those light bulb moments, those epiphanies of clarity and sense making.
Our knowledge is constantly evolving, flexing and growing, it is not fixed.
“Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested”.Proverb
Many people are obsessed with ‘knowing stuff about stuff’, humans, especially educators, legitimise themselves through anchoring their knowledge in theory.
Knowledge is often led by the head. Knowledge is intellectualised, theorised and academised.
Knowledge is knowing the facts, the information, the detail. Wisdom is knowing what to do with it.
Knowledge can sometimes become a regurgitation of what we know. When we truly understand something we explain it, we can paraphrase it and we can simplify it.
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.Albert Einstein
Knowledge is the theory. Wisdom is the practice.
Many people are obsessed with ‘knowing stuff about stuff’, but how well do we know ourselves? How much internal knowledge and wisdom to we focus on?
In the ongoing Diversity and Inclusion conversations I am in, we reflect on and discuss the need for the ‘inner work’ to take place to empower the individual, to enable the ‘outer’ work to manifest.
The relationship between the internal and the external can be paralleled to the relationship between theory and practice. Which comes first? Which shapes the other?
“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand”. Frank Herbert
So how well do we actually know ourselves? How much kudos do we place on this aspect of knowledge?
How familiar are we with us? How self-aware and socially aware are we? How deep is our understanding of our internal worlds?
Knowledge could and should be led by the heart. Knowledge should be personalised, emotionalised and humanised.
Knowledge is important. Intelligence is important. But emotional intelligence is really important.
“It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the oppositeof intelligence, it is not the triumph of heart over head– it is the unique intersectionof both”.David Caruso
This year it has felt at times that we no longer know the world we live in. The system we know has changed. The society we knew has changed. Thus it is on us to develop our knowledge and deepen our understanding.
“Knowledge is power”.Francis Bacon
What we know is important. What we do not know needs to be discovered.
Who we know is important. Who we do not know needs to be discovered.
“Knowledge without practice is useless. Practice without knowledge is dangerous”. Confucius
Knowledge is power.
Knowledge is empowering.
Knowledge is enabling.
Knowledge is liberating.
Knowledge is progress.
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premised of progress in every society, in every family”.Kofi Annan
Knowledge unlocks us.
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