Have you seen Maria Popova’s video Wisdom in the Age of Information where she shares her thoughts on the influx of readily available information combined with the lack of wisdom and understanding in our world today? The video is part of the 2014 Future of Storytelling Summit, and Popova explores “the question of how we can cultivate true wisdom in the age of information and why great storytellers matter more than ever in helping us make sense of an increasingly complex world.” I really like the ladder analogy; this idea of starting with basic information and climbing through knowledge and interpretation and eventually getting to the top of the ladder where wisdom is reached:
“At its base is a piece of information, which simply tells us some basic fact about the world. Above that is knowledge — the understanding of how different bits of information fit together to reveal some truth about the world. Knowledge hinges on an act of correlation and interpretation. At the top is wisdom, which has a moral component — it is the application of information worth remembering and knowledge that matters to understanding not only how the world works, but also how it should work. And that requires a moral framework of what should and shouldn’t matter, as well as an ideal of the world at its highest potentiality.”
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. This really got me thinking…
(Written and narrated by Maria Popova. Animated by Drew Christie. via Swiss Miss.)