Understanding Continuum
Absorbing
Context
Data
Doing
Information
Interacting
Knowledge
Reflecting
Researching
Wisdom
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Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding. - Proverbs 4:7
Wisdom is the ultimate level of understanding. We achieve this level when we see enough patterns and meta-patterns that we are able to synthesize and then use them in novel ways.
We can be Knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom. -- Michel de Montaigne
Wisdom is not easily passed from one person to another as it must be worked for. However, recognizing and valuing the wisdom in others will help define a framework for achieving it.
When information is brushed against information...the results are startling and effective. The perennial quest for involvement, fill-in, takes many forms. --Marshall McLuhan The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967).
And the reason it is startling, is that it oftem allows one to see forward. "The past went that-a-way. When faced with a totally new situation, we tend to always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future" wrote Marshall McLuhan. Wisdom allows us to take our eyes off the rear-view mirror by brushing new information with our present knowledge base. We can now predict.
Reference
Wurman, S. (2001). Information Anxiety 2 Indianapolis: Que.
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