The 5 Different Ways In Which We Understand Things

We all have an intuition about what it means to understand something. We all know what it’s like to be confused. We know both the pain of memorizing an answer you don’t understand as well as the satisfaction that comes from finally “getting it.” Yet what that intuition points to is hard to pin down.

The impetus to really understand what we’re learning was a central theme in my early writing. While I still agree this is important, I’m less clear what it means. Beyond this satisfying feeling, what does it mean to understand?