Sunday, October 5, 2008

Too much of information, but not too much of wisdom!

Today I saw an interesting interview with Ralph Nader, among other things, a lawyer, a political activist, and an independent candidate in the American presidential campaign. In the interview, Nader questions that, with the outcome and development of internet, people are overwhelmed with tons of information and do not have enough time to process it into wisdom

Nader continues and explains what is the chain used to process senseless bits of information to a more deeper understanding of the world: 

                Information -> Knowledge -> Judgment -> Experience -> Wisdom.

First, one must know what is the information, that would be knowledge. Then with this knowledge one must think critically about it, that is, judge the knowledge, and then, base his/her actions on this judgement leading to experience. Finally, only after he/she has experimented and seen the outcomes of his/her actions, he/she transforms pieces of information into wisdom. 

3 comments:

mrpingouin said...

Hi Vivek. Makes me think of that quote:
"You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom."
-- Herbie Hancock

Vivek Nigam said...

Hi David, nice to have you here :).

That is a cool quote and it relates well to what Nader explained. I guess the effort to attain wisdom far exceeds the effort to attain knowledge...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.