The Steps to Wisdom - Suck-O Neophyte Lesson
by DNR
According to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:
1. Data: symbols, images
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
3. Knowledge: application of data and information ( like how to build a computer - DNR)
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why" (or Why computers work- DNR)
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding. *see below
Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates vision and design. With wisdom, people can create the future rather than just grasp the present and past. But achieving wisdom isn't easy; people must move successively through the other categories.**
DNR- let me explain my take on Knowledge and Understanding.
They are different, one can posess the knowledge to assemble a computer - how to place RAM chips, how to install a CPU chip, graphics card installation etc - but lack the understanding of how computers utlize all those parts to work. Hence Understanding supercedes Knowledge.
*Wisdom
"Wisdom is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic process. It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically upon special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). "**
DNR- So now you know why Suck-O staff places strong empasis on ethics, ethics will be a central part of how your wisdom will work. In society, in public schools or even corporate training - they teach you not to think in a certain way - like Black or Grey Hat. Here on Suck-O, to prepare those that want to be security oriented - we allow discussions into the realm of criminal or offensive tactics because we want your Wisdom to include those possibilities. Governments and corporations want sheep - blind and dumb followers, Suck-O is about breaking that rule. This is what will break you from Society, you will no longer 'fit in'. Once you walk to another step, once you take the path others won't take, once you start thinking for yourself- you are walking apart from society. Society requires blind trust to work, this is why you will be a threat to society, to governments and corporations. Suck-O wisdom is about thinking for individuals, for people, for real communities to survive and be prolific.
More on the Topic of 'human programming to enhance wisdom'. Here at Suck-o we try to encourage out-of-box thinking, we try to encourage collecting information that might not be 'publicly available or intended for your eyes', we teach social engineering so you can engineer people to give you the data and information they might not otherwise tell you. This kind of programming is akin to teaching someone to be a spy or intruder - it might not make you popular, but it leads to wisdom over other people. Society programs people to trust the government, corporations, and media for information and knowledge - Suck-0 programs its members to question authority, to mistrust others, to verify everything.
"Wisdom is the essence of philosophical probing. Unlike the previous four levels, it asks questions to which there is no (easily-achievable) answer, and in some cases, to which there can be no humanly-known answer period. Wisdom is therefore, the process by which we also discern, or judge, between right and wrong, good and bad."**
DNR - is there a point to asking questions to which there might not be an answer? Yes. First off - who decides there is not a 'humanly-known answer'?
Next, average people do not want to ask deep questions - to get some answers you have to achieve 'super-human' thinking. Hackers I believe can achieve better wisdom than average people, we have access to more Knowledge and we have built better Understanding through study and hands on, and then include the Hyper Active hacker mind. (the hyper active mind in a hacker is more trained and focused than just a person with Attention deficit Hyper Activity Disorder).
Remember the entire five step process is built. You have to learn to develop each step to be effective. I suspect many people in society skip over parts of these five steps - and therefore - give the appearance of lacking common sense. I know that we here at Suck-O keep going over the basics, the data, the knowledge, the understanding, and probing wisdom, some people don't get it - because they are skipping over the four steps to Wisdom.
DNR
Parts copied from:**www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm
Explaining the steps to Wisdom
Explaining the steps to Wisdom
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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.
Re: Explaining the steps to Wisdom
Good article I enjoyed reading it
Re: Explaining the steps to Wisdom
Continued..
To become smart, you develop the five steps. you cannot be weak on any of the steps, or your wisdom will be flawed.
1. Data: symbols, images
Learn to understand what is important data, and ignore the rest as 'noise'. Learn to spot the important details everyone else will miss, the crucial bit of data. People look at a car and see its red and sporty. I look at a car and see its a four door, 3.5l V6 engine, rear wheel drive, 225hp, five speed automatic trans. Thats the important details other people screw up on, they look at 'pretty colors, shiney metal, cool sounds' - they got suckered into seeing the 'eye candy' or the 'hat trick'. Know what is important so you can quickly collect it.
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
Learn to process the important categories - "who, what, where, when, and how" is a pretty good category setup. Hackers can see things in an organized directory, almost like NDS/ADS/DOS tree. This helps to quickly 'place in directory, upload, and store'. The "Why" is not important at this stage of thinking, Why is dealt with in Understanding.
3. Knowledge: application of data and information ( like how to build a computer - DNR)
Knowledge can almost be "memorized", I tend to discourage memorization as it is not a helpful cheat in life. If you did a good job collecting data, process it as information, you still have to know how it applies to your life. If I don't teach you that a $5 bill can be broken down into 5 $1 bills, you might only use that $5 bill for purchases that cost $5 or more - only because you memorized that the $5 bill is worth $5, and not how $5 applies in the terms of money breakdown. So make sure you are taking the time to connect the data and information in a useful way. This almost applies to building a good mental directory of storing and looking up information. You are responsible for tying together the information into something useful, otherwise you are just memorizing and acting like a parrot. I aced many IT/CIS exams because I did more than Knowledge, I had Understanding of why networks and devices worked.
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why" (or Why computers work- DNR)
Understanding supercedes Knowledge. Knowledge could be checking the weather report on TV and remembering besides it being April, the forecast is rain. Looking outside and seeing low lying dark clouds outside, increased wind - you can understand that it means rain.
This is now the stage where it is ok to study "Why". Instead of trusting the TV to tell you the weather, you tie the forecast with the visual and tensile feel of the weather - you begin to understand Why it rains, why its cold or hot.
Don't waste time on Why of unimportant things - your brain can get on a loop over some Whys. People despair, stop, drink alcohol excessively, abuse drugs, quit - because they can't get their mind around some Whys. I know the prior author said that Wisdom is about determining impossible human answers - those are the Whys. Some answers you will have to just wisely accept, even though you don't like the answer.
Those that understand Why things work - will always score better than students that had knowledge. Again in college and at work, I did better than students that tried to memorize answers to exams or assembly - I could always beat trick questions and unexpected situations because I had the understanding of why and how things work.
I would rather teach someone with a little understanding, and no knowledge - than to teach someone with lots of knowledge and zero understanding.
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding. *see below
Wisdom is earned. This is the result of properly developing the four steps above. Those that have wisdom earned it through much trial and error, much handson, failures and success. They traveled, they talked to others, they watched and listened. Books, texts, exams, lectures, classes, employment, and writing had to be carefully run through the four steps.
Wisdom is a prize, it can make life so much easier to journey. Wisdom can be shared, but its never the same as owning it.
In the fast paced society - people are losing the important details, they allow others to think for them - so they can dismiss a thought and go find another. I am betting that GPS will only make people dumber - now instead of people learning how to read a map, or making a mental map of where they are, or processing 'dead reckoning' with the stars and moons - you'll be lost one day the GPS satellites fail or you are in a new area.
People chose to watch TV or videos - this is not a good way to process data and information. I have no idea how the next generation of thinkers will last having learned everything from a damn youtube video. Books required you to process data, information, knowledge, and understanding while studying it. Try doing that with a 5 minute video dumbass.
Hands on, actual experiments, taking classes and working employment in your area of interest is better than books. This is learning by applying what you understand - and that will bring more understanding.
This is the path to Wisdom.
DNR
To become smart, you develop the five steps. you cannot be weak on any of the steps, or your wisdom will be flawed.
1. Data: symbols, images
Learn to understand what is important data, and ignore the rest as 'noise'. Learn to spot the important details everyone else will miss, the crucial bit of data. People look at a car and see its red and sporty. I look at a car and see its a four door, 3.5l V6 engine, rear wheel drive, 225hp, five speed automatic trans. Thats the important details other people screw up on, they look at 'pretty colors, shiney metal, cool sounds' - they got suckered into seeing the 'eye candy' or the 'hat trick'. Know what is important so you can quickly collect it.
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
Learn to process the important categories - "who, what, where, when, and how" is a pretty good category setup. Hackers can see things in an organized directory, almost like NDS/ADS/DOS tree. This helps to quickly 'place in directory, upload, and store'. The "Why" is not important at this stage of thinking, Why is dealt with in Understanding.
3. Knowledge: application of data and information ( like how to build a computer - DNR)
Knowledge can almost be "memorized", I tend to discourage memorization as it is not a helpful cheat in life. If you did a good job collecting data, process it as information, you still have to know how it applies to your life. If I don't teach you that a $5 bill can be broken down into 5 $1 bills, you might only use that $5 bill for purchases that cost $5 or more - only because you memorized that the $5 bill is worth $5, and not how $5 applies in the terms of money breakdown. So make sure you are taking the time to connect the data and information in a useful way. This almost applies to building a good mental directory of storing and looking up information. You are responsible for tying together the information into something useful, otherwise you are just memorizing and acting like a parrot. I aced many IT/CIS exams because I did more than Knowledge, I had Understanding of why networks and devices worked.
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why" (or Why computers work- DNR)
Understanding supercedes Knowledge. Knowledge could be checking the weather report on TV and remembering besides it being April, the forecast is rain. Looking outside and seeing low lying dark clouds outside, increased wind - you can understand that it means rain.
This is now the stage where it is ok to study "Why". Instead of trusting the TV to tell you the weather, you tie the forecast with the visual and tensile feel of the weather - you begin to understand Why it rains, why its cold or hot.
Don't waste time on Why of unimportant things - your brain can get on a loop over some Whys. People despair, stop, drink alcohol excessively, abuse drugs, quit - because they can't get their mind around some Whys. I know the prior author said that Wisdom is about determining impossible human answers - those are the Whys. Some answers you will have to just wisely accept, even though you don't like the answer.
Those that understand Why things work - will always score better than students that had knowledge. Again in college and at work, I did better than students that tried to memorize answers to exams or assembly - I could always beat trick questions and unexpected situations because I had the understanding of why and how things work.
I would rather teach someone with a little understanding, and no knowledge - than to teach someone with lots of knowledge and zero understanding.
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding. *see below
Wisdom is earned. This is the result of properly developing the four steps above. Those that have wisdom earned it through much trial and error, much handson, failures and success. They traveled, they talked to others, they watched and listened. Books, texts, exams, lectures, classes, employment, and writing had to be carefully run through the four steps.
Wisdom is a prize, it can make life so much easier to journey. Wisdom can be shared, but its never the same as owning it.
In the fast paced society - people are losing the important details, they allow others to think for them - so they can dismiss a thought and go find another. I am betting that GPS will only make people dumber - now instead of people learning how to read a map, or making a mental map of where they are, or processing 'dead reckoning' with the stars and moons - you'll be lost one day the GPS satellites fail or you are in a new area.
People chose to watch TV or videos - this is not a good way to process data and information. I have no idea how the next generation of thinkers will last having learned everything from a damn youtube video. Books required you to process data, information, knowledge, and understanding while studying it. Try doing that with a 5 minute video dumbass.
Hands on, actual experiments, taking classes and working employment in your area of interest is better than books. This is learning by applying what you understand - and that will bring more understanding.
This is the path to Wisdom.
DNR
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He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in Darkness, and Light dwells with him.