
Why Understanding Beats Knowledge - Swizec
https://swizec.com/blog/why-understanding-beats-knowledge/
======
stakkur
But knowledge _is_ understanding.

We often mislabel 'information' as 'knowledge'. But information is just
information. A 'knowledge base' is no such thing; it's an information base.
Knowledge is not 'memory of facts'.

Knowledge == information + understanding.

Wisdom == information + understanding + experience.

Example: Python syntax is information. Understanding and using Python syntax
is knowledge. Knowing when Python isn't what you need is wisdom.

~~~
BerislavLopac
Obligatory meme:
[https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/12946008718971699...](https://twitter.com/fakehistoryhunt/status/1294600871897169921)

~~~
stakkur
Along those lines, this is more or less where I was trying to get:
[https://ecolabsblog.com/2010/11/29/data-information-
knowledg...](https://ecolabsblog.com/2010/11/29/data-information-knowledge-
and-wisdom/)

Basically, these are the same as the building blocks of library and
information science.

------
Vmody2
This is why it's important for STEM and tech people to have some understanding
of liberal arts. "Understanding" means having perspective, it's easy to get
caught up in our world, thought patterns, echo chambers, and biases. I think
that's why curiosity is such an important trait, it promotes understanding,
not the accumulation of facts. Next time you're at a book store, pick
something up on a topic that sounds interesting that's outside of your
traditional scope.

~~~
aardvarks
So I'm totally on board with everyone knowing something about the liberal arts
and trying to expand your world outside your traditional scope.

But I think "understanding" can mean just making connections within a single
tech field, even without involving liberal arts. For example, a grade school
math problem: "Assume the earth is a perfect sphere with radius 6378 km, and
you have a piece of string just long enough to reach all the way around the
earth's equator at the earth's surface. How much longer would your string have
to be to make a perfect circle exactly one meter above the earth's equator at
every point?"

The answer is 2(pi) meters. That's true for any spherical planet of any size
-- that's what it means for the derivative of 2(pi)(r) with respect to r to be
2(pi). That is sometimes not the first thing people think of though, because
of the grade-school context they associate with this problem....

------
imheretolearn
>> Ask you that same question in a different way and you have no idea. Never
heard of it. This is why whiteboard interviews are hard – questions that you
know, but out of context

In my experience this is true. I "test" my friends on these and most of them
always screw up an answer to the questions I asked them just a couple of days
ago when the question is slightly different but the underlying principle is
the same. This is also why I spend hours on a question I get an answer to
easily. Because it's important to understand the principle rather than getting
the right answer. You can also conduct this test. The simplest and the most
basic test is to ask someone what "binary search" is. Obviously, every
developer knows what it is but when you ask them to apply binary search in a
slightly different context(pick up any medium binary search question on
Leetcode, Hackerrank etc) they will fudge it up. I get the hate "trivia" algo
interview questions get on HN. However, I just love them because I have always
loved "puzzles"

------
guerrilla
I really like the graphics in this. I like how "information" and "knowledge"
are contrasted in the six squares. This is really what it feels like.
Knowledge is structured, tightly connected in predictable ways, whereas
information is just a kind of soup, a mess of facts. What the other
distinctions are supposed to mean is less clear, but at least they're
entertaining. I also really hope that the "knowledge" vs "understanding" plot
is accurate. That would be quite encouraging if true. Seems plausible.

~~~
Swizec
Not a psychology researcher and this wasn’t a study so I can’t vouch for
“accurate”. Think of that graph as a distillation off my observations and
experiences into 4 lines.

The idea I’m trying to share is that understanding compounds. The more you
understand, the faster you can gain new understanding. And the more frameworks
you have for the world, the faster you can gain knowledge because you need
fewer examples to grok something.

For example, once you understand how browser-server communication works,
picking up a new library is just a matter of syntax and names. You already
know the concepts and what to expect. You might even be able to predict/guess
what the functions are called based on knowing what the necessary operations
are.

~~~
guerrilla
> And the more frameworks you have for the world, the faster you can gain
> knowledge because you need fewer examples to grok something.

Oh, of course! This is a really good argument and now that you say this, I
realize I've also noticed this happening.

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replicant
A very formulaic article, start with an anecdote that could fit many other
articles (it seems Feynmann always shows up when we are talking about
learning), refer to some Twitter conversation, add a formula or graph which
provides no insight, sprinkle memes everywhere and that's all.

In the end, it seems the entire article can be summarised to, "it is all good
to google for some recipes to solve your problems, but you also should care
about some deeper understanding". Is there anything else to it?

------
est
> the derivative (tangent) of the minimum (lowest point) of any curve is zero
> (horizontal). > holding their pencil up to it at the lowest point and laying
> it along, and discovering that, sure enough, the tangent is horizontal.

Any gifs showing that? just really curious and can't picture that in my head.

~~~
thedirt0115
Here is a GIF demonstrating the tangent line as a point traverses a curve:
[https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-
content...](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-
content/uploads/sites/1862/2017/06/23162553/of-sliding-derivative-line.gif)

The "pencil" (the short line representing the tangent) is green when positive,
black when zero, and red when negative. Note that when it is black/zero, the
"pencil" line is flat. This occurs at both local maxima and minima.

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thisispete
Does not apply to tech interviews.

~~~
kempbellt
Absolutely applies to tech interviews.

Interviewed at a company that wanted to hire me a PHP web dev. I mentioned
right out of the gate, "I have _zero_ PHP experience and most of my roles have
been back-end/infrastructure related, but since we are chatting, here are
examples of similar projects in other languages. And I'll also discuss a bit
about my understanding of web development in general".

Hired and started within the week and had a very productive working
relationship with them for quite some time.

------
baxtr
I think connecting two separate pieces of knowledge is usually called
intelligence.

