Why you probably can’t transfer Wisdom

Bringing out the Wisdom — Week 2

Wow such a busy week, with lots of insights. While writing this post I realized how much I value this place as a way to reflect. Without it, I would probably be super confused right now. Instead, I feel like I have something I can work with.

This week is a bit heavy on the theory, but that’s what I needed I guess. I think last week’s making paid off, because it enabled me to connect some expert interviews with my own findings.

One of the goals of last week’s experiment was to see if I could stimulate wisdom transfer through anonymity. The interviews I had this week clearly showed that people valued the advice that they received. However, did they actually become wiser?

The more I learn about the topic of wisdom, the more I realize that wisdom transfer as a goal doesn’t really make sense. The word transfer sort of implies that wisdom is something you can consume, like reading a book or listening to a podcast. However you can’t really transfer wisdom. Even if the wisest person in the world would share all of his insights, you wouldn’t necessary become wiser.

Even if the wisest person would share all of his insights with you, you wouldn’t necessary become wiser.

The philosopher that I talked to on Friday, articulated this well.

I don’t think you can really internalize wisdom through consumption. You can however use tools (e.g. astrology) that stimulate a different way of looking. These can open a window in your head so your existing wisdom gets space to move. Then you can personally translate this into practical wisdom.

Koert, Philosopher and Designer.

This week I also talked to a person who had several concrete moments of enlightenment. Moments in which she suddenly saw things into perspective.

Through meditation I suddenly realized that the person that harassed me earlier that day wouldn’t have done it if he would know how bad it made me feel. He was just ignorant. That’s how I was able to forgive his actions.

Anna, describing her moment of enlightenment

This moment of enlightenment was actually a very individual moment. It was just her sitting in a room and meditating with nobody around her. Sure, we can’t ignore the role of the specific person in this situation, but this person wasn’t transferring his wisdom in the sense I was trying with my experiment. She made an effort to translate this situation into wisdom. She really internalized it during that moment of enlightenment.

This implies that in potential, a lot of the wisdom is already inside of us. We just need to trigger it. How might we? It seems to me that wisdom gain happens when we change perspective. When we see the situation through the eyes of the person that harassed us earlier that day. When a trauma makes us realize what is really important to us. When we listen to the advice from our best friend. Even when we read a horoscope.

It seems to me that wisdom gain happens when we change perspective.

I’m starting to believe that wisdom is ultimately about putting things in the correct perspective. It’s about understanding how things relate. How we relate to the world and the people around us. How our actions relate to what we think is important.

I’m starting to believe that wisdom is ultimately about putting things in perspective. It’s about understanding how things relate.

In my attempt to make wisdom transferable, I think I just made people express and consume each other’s practical advice. Whether that made the listener actually wiser is really up to the individual. To my surprise, the potential wisdom gain was not about the contents of the advice, but about the attitude of the receiver towards it.

I wasn’t really ready to hear what he had to say. My first response was: “Who the hell are you to tell me this?” I know this is something I do, Im not so open to listen. I felt that If I don’t like it, perhaps there is something I can change about my openness to advice in general.

Amy, after listening to her personal advice.

To me this demonstrates a possible gain in wisdom. Another person said:

The advices were so diverse which made me understand that everyone is different and that I can find the right answer that is right for me.

Carl, after listening to his personal advice.

Like I said, it’s not so much about the actual contents of the advice, but how people handle getting different perspectives. So my conclusion of this week is that I think that even though I don’t think you can really transfer wisdom, you can catalyze it by providing new perspectives.

Just another thought with regards to my experiment. It seems that wisdom is the result of your actions, not so much of your words. Maybe once wisdom gets externalized through words, it stops being wisdom and just becomes knowledge instead.

Maybe once wisdom gets externalized through words, it stops being wisdom and just becomes knowledge instead.

With this in mind, I’ve been wondering whether wisdom is something you can teach. I’ve been talking to an education designer and a humanist, about the teachability of wisdom. It’s too early to draw conclusions, but it’s interesting to hear their perspectives.

You can teach people wisdom — if you teach them it to them in the way they need it. How do they like to learn? Through reading, listening, seeing or experiencing? And then, you take their topics of interests and play to their self interest, create a program that provides that to them while also given them a hearty dose of wisdom and philosophy and then provide it in the format they want.

Jennifer, Humanist

Jennifer said so many interesting things, I still need to process that interview. Humanism seems a really interesting area, because it’s a philosophy that places the human in the center.

Concretely, in the education of today, wisdom doesn’t seem like something that has a lot of focus.

Actually there isn’t something I think of in the educational setting, when I hear wisdom. I haven’t seen wisdom being treated as a skill, or anything like that.

Isabela, Education designer

Thanks again for reading! For next week, I’m thinking it could be nice to prototype a tool that forces people to change perspective on their current situation. Storytelling and play could be two interesting strategies, because they enable changing perspective, by nature.

I’ve also identified commutes, as an interesting context. I’ve repeatedly heard from people that they think and reflect during their commutes, potentially leading to deeper insights.

Hope to see you next week.
Martijn

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