Ripples #1303: Delicious Wisdom
May 13, 2024
PEBBLE
Science is organized knowledge.
Wisdom is organized life.
~Immanuel Kant, shared by Leslie in Madison, WI
BOULDER
Intelligence is the ability to understand many ideas. Wisdom is the ability to identify the few ideas worth understanding. Wisdom without intelligence can still lead to a good, simple life. Intelligence without wisdom is a special (and dangerous) form of stupidity.
~Mark Manson, shared by Grant via Mark’s newsletter
PONDER
Common dictionary definitions of wisdom tend to mention some combination of knowledge, experience, and good judgment. From my vantage point, these are indeed necessary ingredients, but not quite sufficient by themselves to create wisdom. It’s like when you’re baking cookies: you can’t just put some ingredients in a bowl and instantly have delicious cookies. The ingredients must be mixed together in the right combination, and then the dough needs to spend the ideal amount of time in an oven at the correct temperature.
I’m sorry, I’ve now lost my train of thought due to random cookie-related daydreams.
Where was I? Oh yeah…Wisdom.
Instead of baking in an oven, wisdom is forged in the fires of a full life. This includes plenty of learning and many different kinds of experiences (good times and hard times, fun things and awful things). And you can’t set a timer to know exacatly when wisdom will be ready to be served up. Even after you eventually assemble together the right combination of growing and living…there is a distillation process that takes quite a while.
And even then it usually takes a decent amount of maturity and humility to value the Delicious Wisdom we’ve acquired, and to know if and when to share it with others.
Peace,
Paul
