Data, Knowledge, information, skill & wisdom
Knowledge refers to learning concepts, principles and information regarding a particular subject(s) by a person through books, media, encyclopedias, academic institutions and other sources.
Skill refers to the ability of using that information and applying it in a context.
In other words, knowledge refers to theory and skill refers to successfully applying that theory in practice and getting expected results.
Knowledge is- Theory, Skill is Practical
Knowledge is knowing how to fly an airplane, skills is to actually fly it.
Knowledge is- knowing an onion can be cut into small pieces within 10 seconds…skill is your ability to do it.
Knowledge is- knowing conflict resolution techniques but skill is how good you resolve conflicts.
Knowledge can be acquired, Skill too however your inherent talent will decide how good you will be (how skillfully you can do certain things)
Knowledge is information acquired through sensory input: Reading, watching, listening, etc. The concept of knowledge refers to familiarity with factual information and theoretical concepts. Knowledge can be transferred from one person to another or it can be self acquired through observation and study. Skills, however, refer to the ability to apply knowledge.
Developing Skills
Therefore, if you want to better prepare individuals to meet a desired performance, they don’t need more lectures or knowledge transfer session. What they need is more practice, and it takes time; the more one practices the better one becomes. The production of more presentations and more page turners will only make people more knowledgeable; it will not provide them with skills to better do their job.
How are data, information, knowledge, and wisdom different concepts?
“Thinking is hard work, and that is why very few people engage in it.”
Thinking new ideas often will give you a new and broad perspective to look at the ever abundant data around you in order for you to gather valuable information for planning and decision making.
Always remember this, ideas must come first.
Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, once remarked:
“Make it a practice to keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully.
Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problems you are working.”
Robert Kiyosaski, author of ‘If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself and Your Children’, gave this simple advice to all those who wants to be rich:
“It’s what in your head that determines what is in your hands. Money is only an idea. If you want more money, simply change your thinking.
Money never starts an idea. It is the idea that starts the money.”
With almost all data and information are available at our fingertips, we should seriously focus on generating ideas and provoking insights.
By doing so, then we are in a better – also, faster and even smarter – position to make effective use of the constant bombardment of environmental data in order to produce valuable information, through our conceptual understanding and personal relevancy.
And by seeing the pattern of relationships in the abundant information we produced, or “connecting the dots”, as Steve Jobs so eloquently put it a decade ago, we get better ideas and insights.
Putting our viable ideas and insights to work in our life, in our work, in our business, and/or even for our client(s), gives us the opportunity to know what works, what doesn’t work and what could possibly work better, faster and smarter the next time around, with a little bit of tweaking on our part or acquisition of additional strategies and tactics.
The gainful result is experience.
Cumulative experience = knowledge, in the practical sense.
As Albert Einstein is believed to have said: “Knowledge is experience; everything else is just information.”
Over time, with continual application and consistent evolution, our cumulative knowledge becomes expertise.
Again, with ongoing adaptation, and continuous and never ending improvement in whatever we think and do, our discerning use of expertise eventually becomes wisdom.
That’s how I see the trajectory.
