Tag: understanding

Food For Thought Friday

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💡 What’s your expectation for today?

💡 What you don’t know can be your greatest strength. It enables you to do things differently than everyone else.

💡 Respect the feelings of others even when it differs from yours.

💡 Know when to move in silence. Less tell. More show.

💡 Avoid spreading negativity. Treat it like the noise it is.

💡 Self-awareness is half the battle.

💡 Do it to make a difference, not to make an impression.

💡 Solving problems with money is the least creative solution.

💡 People often understand what they want to hear, not what you mean.

💡 There is a difference between giving up and knowing when you had enough.

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Knowledge vs. Experience

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The internet provides us with vasts amounts of information, but does it help us truly understand? Information overload doesn’t result in more wisdom. If anything, the opposite occurs – information without the proper context and interpretation only muddles our understanding.

There’s a difference between knowledge and experience. Obtaining knowledge requires some sensory input: reading, watching, listening, and touching. In contrast, experience comes with time, exposure, and practice.

For example, we may recognize a written language just by looking at the characters, but we will not understand it unless we take time to study it and put it to use.

We may also know something intellectually, but our intuitive thoughts, feelings, and emotions can cloud our understanding and shortchange our experience.

Chinese philosopher Confucius sums it up well: “I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.”

Illustration: Hugh MacLeod / Gapingvoid

Ongoing Learning

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If you’re not learning, you’re standing still. But how do we get feedback on what we’re learning? And how do we go about learning new subjects and identifying gaps in our existing knowledge?

Often, we don’t realize we lack an understanding of something until it’s too late. We tend to focus on knowing the name of something versus actually knowing something.

The Feynman Technique is a 4-step process for learning that you can use to understand just about anything.

Step 1: Helps you embrace what you don’t know, it requires you to be specific, and you have to start small (a page or two).

Step 2: Makes it harder for you to trick yourself and others, as well as helps you build confidence.

Step 3: Learning becomes an iterative process, you’re actively engaged, and you expand your knowledge base.

Step 4: Simplicity provides greater understanding, and using analogies makes it easier to recall and explain.

Reference: Ambition and Balance

Having Prejudices Limits You

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Prejudice

Prejudice grows out of personal pride when one considers himself to be better than the other and refuses to look beyond ill-conceived stereotypes.

We are all on different paths and have different levels of understanding, but that does not make any one of us less human.

It is destructive to hate, so don’t let your prejudices get in the way of those you are to set an example for, nor those that are in positions of leadership.

Agree to Disagree

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The idea that “I’ll believe what I want to believe” and “you believe what you want to believe” can sometimes lead to the avoidance of the truth. You should seek to understand the viewpoints of others. Getting to know someone better provides you the opportunity to build upon the things you mutually share or agree, instead of putting all your energy into disagreeing.

Whenever you see people arguing as if it were intellectual combat, the nature of the argument can be grossly misunderstood or overshadowed by the person with the loudest or most convincing delivery. Instead of taking offense to someone agreeing or disagreeing with you, be willing to keep an open mind if the argument has good merit.

Being Humble

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Humility gives a more accurate perspective of oneself and the world.

Some people think that humility means putting oneself down, but humility is not self-degradation.

It is a realistic assessment of who you are and what you represent.

Don’t write off someone who challenges you.

There may be truth in what is said.

Receive the message with humility while carefully thinking it over.

If you discover there’s room for improvement, take the necessary steps to correct the behavior.

When you are humble, you understand your limitations.