What is Knowing?

What does it mean to know something? How do you know you are doing it right? What sort of activity is “knowing”? We know what it means to be strong–i.e., to be able to lift something–but what does it mean to be smart? What does it mean to knowledgeable? What makes us able to know? What does knowledge feel like when we’re in the midst of it?

This has been an abiding question for me, probably since grad school, starting 20 years ago. I now have a simple three part answer that, of course, merely scratches the surface of a much more complicated one. But it’s important to me to emphasize that the three simple parts of my definition of knowledge are all things you can go ahead and train if you want to get smarter. You don’t need anyone to help you get started, though you might need someone to help you polish.

Compare strength again. Weight lifting is a sport that doesn’t just depend on raw strength. Body building, likewise, is an art that doesn’t just depend on muscle mass. In both cases, there are important skills that need to be learned from others. You need a coach. But there is also a simple, ordinary, nonspecialist approach to strength that you can do completely on your own. You can do push ups, and sit ups, and jumping jacks, and you can go for a run. All these things will make you stronger, and if you do them within moderation (and sensitivity to pain) they are unlikely to injure you.

The same goes for getting smarter. The three basic things you should become good at are:

  1. Making up your mind.
  2. Speaking your mind.
  3. Writing it down.

It’s literally that simple.

First, recognize that making up your mind has to do with forming a belief that you have good reason to think is true. You practice this every day by asking yourself a question that you think it’s within your power to answer. Is there water on the moon? Are there more people alive today than have ever died? What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? What is a CDO? Start with a question that you don’t quite know the answer to but, of course, one that you are curious about. Then go online and try to make up your mind. What sorts of reasons can find to believe one thing or another? Remember that you don’t just want to find “the right answer”, you want to understand why it it the right answer.

Next, tell someone about it. Try to tell someone that you think is knowledgeable about the subject. Are you able to converse intelligently about the subject you have researched? Does the conversation become you merely listening to this other person explain it to you? Or do you do all the talking (suggesting that they are not actually as knowledgeable as you thought)? Is the conversation interesting? If you know what you’re talking about, it should be.

Finally, write it down. Spend 18 or 27 minutes writing a single prose paragraph about what you have learned. Make it at least six sentences long and most 200 words. Make sure you provide your sources.  When you’re done, read it out loud. If possible, have someone else read it back to you. It should be easy to read. It should constitute a strong confident statement of the fact you know to be true along with your reasons for thinking so.

Smart people can carry out these activities in the same way that strong people can lift, carry and throw things of various weight with confidence. Even when they are operating at the edge of their strength, they know what they are capable of. That’s because they are used to using their muscles. You want to be used to using your knowledge in the same way. Think, speak, write. These are the basic disciplines.

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