What is Wisdom? I.

I started Wisdom from Unusual Places in February 2023 to pass on some knowledge acquired through my experience in change consulting, leading change, or living. I was quick to point out that I did not consider myself wise. I am more of a wiseacre, quick with sarcastic humor, which I have discovered gets in the way of the reflection and learning needed to become wise.

Still, I maintained that I occasionally stumbled across wisdom, albeit from unusual places, and that I recognized it when I saw it.

The second post I wrote was my wisdom epistemology, “knowledge that comes from hard-knock, mistake-riven experience and the kind of skill that comes from great practice, repeated until the hands move unthinkingly, at-one with the craft.”

I wrote that wise people were purpose driven, humble, grateful, positive. I said we all had wisdom within us, and that we all could recognize wisdom when we saw it, but might have difficulty living it.

We understand that the Golden Rule is wise, but  sometimes “we forget,” just like I recognize but sometimes forget the wisdom in what a mentor once told me:

“A chip on your shoulder cuts off blood flow to the brain.” .

Recently, I read an upcoming book by Roopa Unnikrishnan about how ancient oracles inform the role of chief strategist. It is not through prediction (prophesy), but through disciplined inquiry and diagnosis. In her book, Roopa reminded me that the Pythia, the Delphic oracle priestess, had called Socrates the wisest man in Athens because he could admit what he did not know, and question what he thought he did know.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

I remembered the Socrates quote, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” So the experience of living, no matter how much suffering is endured, without reflection and learning, may not produce wisdom. It is more likely to produce “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, which is the definition of insanity.” (This wise quote is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but there is no evidence that he actually said it.)

Wisdom vs. Expertise

If I study and work for a long time in a field, I might be an expert, but not necessarily wise, even in the limited context of that field. Experts have answers. Wise practitioners might have questions to help you discover.

I also think wisdom is interdisciplinary, less dependent on one particular field, more the realm of the generalist, less the specialist.

“When knowledge speaks wisdom listens.”

Jimi Hendrix, famed guitarist, allegedly said this, perhaps referring to a respect for facts, data, experience and expertise. There is an older version of unknown origin: “Knowledge speaks; wisdom listens,”  which appears to differentiate between the expert who speaks his knowledge, and the wisewoman who listens, curious, with empathy, open-minded, questioning to understand, and balancing all points of view for the common good. Perhaps that is why the Iroquois league had the grandmothers’ council choose their leaders.

Wisdom and Critical Thinking

In 399 BCE, Socrates was tried and convicted of impiety, promoting other gods and corrupting the youth of Athens. He readily agreed to drink the proffered hemlock because he believed the accusation was true. He promoted reason and critical thinking over piety to the gods and authorities of Athens. He taught the youth of Athens to question authority.

Humans have a very powerful brain that when focused is capable of amazing things. This brain is what Daniel Kahneman calls System 2. Kahneman points out that 90% of the time humans rely on System 1, our autopilot brain, that makes decisions and directs actions based upon pattern recognition (What do we typically do here?). It is in System 1 that all 180 documented cognitive biases originate, including the Authority bias and the Status Quo bias.

The famed Socratic Method of questioning facts as to source and uncovering unsupported assumptions, led his students to question piety, justice and authority. Socrates increased his students wisdom at the cost of his life.

I think critical thinking isn’t necessarily wisdom, but wisdom cannot exist without critical thinking.

Wisdom and Common Sense

“Look before you leap,” (risk management)  “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” (diversify against risk,) “A stitch in time saves nine” (preventative maintenance) – these are all common sense sayings. Perhaps, they are collected wisdom to be meditated upon like Zen koans. For most of us, these sayings become unconsidered clichés. To treat them wisely, one would have to reflect and act upon them. If we all had, and used our common sense, there would be no Tulip or Dot Com booms, and no Ponzi schemes.

Frank Lloyd Wright said, “There is nothing so uncommon as common sense.”  The problem with common sense, that combination of practical knowledge and sound judgement, is that we all say we have it, and yet we keep doing things that prove otherwise.

The truly wise question even common sense, because after all:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”  ̶  Mark Twain

“Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.” – Will Rogers

Do you have to be old to be wise?

Nope. I am living proof that age and wisdom are not directly correlated. I’ve heard it said:

“Listen to your elders’ advice, not because they are always right, but because they have more experience at being wrong.”

That isn’t strictly true, back to Socrates on examining your life and failures, but sometimes what I have learned in a similar situation might be helpful.

I am learning though to wait to be asked. I am working on just listening when someone vents to me, to say, “Wow. That must be hard,” rather than to jump in with my “experience,” or my solutions to the problem described. I admit that this is really hard for me to do. One of my values is to be helpful.

Carl Rogers, American psychologist, and founder of the Human Potential Movement once said, “Help that is not asked for is rarely seen as help, but rather as interference.”

So my offering help, however well intentioned, is unlikely to be perceived as helpful. Learning that, might be a step toward becoming wise.

Are we here to discover and share wisdom?

Dunno, but I think I am learning certain lessons repeatedly in my life:

1. Help is defined by the recipient.
2. Choices have consequences, some of which you can predict in advance.
3. Physical therapy exercises don’t work unless you do them.
4. All chemically induced nirvana has a price, some steeper than others.
5. Prepare yourself to be bad at anything you do for the first time.
6. Innate talent is overrated; focused practice is what produces greatness.
7. Nurture connections. Ask for help. No one succeeds by themselves.

These may just be my equivalent of “look before you leap,” unconsidered, uncommon common sense. Sharing them might be unasked for help, a violation of number 1.

What do you think?