Knowledge is power. How to acquire it ?

All of us come across folks who are so knowledgeable that we can't help but think highly of them. And since most of the times their knowledge is not limited to one particular field or subject it seems impossible to be able reach the level of scholarship that they have attained. On the other hand we also meet people in our social and professional life who are so ill formed generally that it is difficult to even carry out a decent, let alone intellectual conversation with them.( If you are thinking of Rahul Gandhi or Donald Trump its purely coincidental).

So while all of us wish to be in the first set of super intelligent and interesting people we not only find the task of educating ourselves daunting, we are at a complete loss how to go about accomplishing it. In today's "Information" age where everything is available at the click of a button on your cell phone or on your computer this should not be so difficult. But we realize that as soon as we start on this journey , this vast ocean of knowledge is what makes the swim so difficult. After all how much time and interest does one have to continuously keep gazing at the screen reading about random stuff ? We decide that its humanly impossible at least for us to acquire knowledge so we decide to just focus on a small area that helps us in our profession and are satisfied by listening to others and getting impressed by them. We don't even shy away from telling others that I know so and so who knows everything about everything so we call him Wikipedia :-) 

In his book You can do Anything, the prolific self-help guru and famous eccentric James Mangan gives a wonderful template to enhance what you know already and keep building upon it. He gives a roadmap for intellectual growth in an almost step by step process in which most of things we are already doing but they just need to be done with a little more awareness and focus. I would not claim that I am an intellectual of nth order but what I can say honestly is that I have been following the principles given by Mangan (albeit unknowingly) and they have helped me to know a thing or two about the world we live in.

Let us discuss these briefly. I could have just listed them for you but since I have so much knowledge ;-) I thought it would be a good opportunity to share that as well.

1. Practice

Trust me it does make a man good at what he does even if he does not become perfect. Since we are doing a task why not do it a number of times so that you have certain level of mastery or command over it. I have seen folks do some magic with Excel and Power Point and I have always blamed my organization of buying me a trial license ! The fact is that they have practised and I have not. 

2. Ask

When we were children we were incessantly asking questions Why this happens, What is that, How can I do this ? and so on but as we grow up our sense of false pride inhibits us from admitting that we don't know. Or that by saying I don't know I will expose my weakness to my competitor especially in the corporate context. I have experienced  that on the contrary when you have a genuine question and you ask people without any pretence they actually think that you are humble and there is a bond that is created between the two of you. So next time when the other person has a question she will also reach out to you. Everyone knows that no one knows everything so our fear of people mocking or ignorance is intrinsic and not real. 

3.Desire

Let me make this very clear - if you do not have the desire to learn you won't. So no point making a fool of others by saying Hey how I wish I could play the guitar like Mark Knopfler or sing like Adelle. Yes you would probably never make it even if you had the desire but the urge makes all the difference. Just drama doesn't work even if you want to act ! It has to be real drama..

4. Learn it from yourself 

There is a reservoir of knowledge inside you waiting to be tapped. You have spent X number of years on this planet, you have survived, you have met people,you have been to places. All this is lying within you like an unpolished diamond. Just focus on yourself and you will see the knowledge taking shape. You will have your own wisdom to share with others. You have made mistakes and you would have learnt from them.Just don't forget. Keep collecting stuff in the library and draw upon the right resource when the time comes.

5.Walk around it

I do this quite literally and quite often when I visit tourist places or even while exploring cities I have lived in by doing Heritage walks. For example if I see a statue or a building I will make it a point to look at it from all possible angles almost asking the object of my interest to tell me its story. And most of the times I am surprised at what I would have missed to discover had I not gone around the thing. Perspective and even the angle makes a lot of difference and it just takes a few more minutes but then I know things that are never there in tourist guides. This is true for abstract or intangible things too. Try and explore all or as many facets as you can.

6. Experiment

The best way to learn is to experiment! Try something different, something new. See what happens. Because if you don't experiment you will only know what others know or what others have told you. Take calculated risks. No one can stop you from trying something new on your self. As long as you don't hurt anyone you can say with full authority that this is the way it is done or this is the way it happens because I have done it myself. People don't have the courage to stretch their boundaries and they will be happy that you have taken the risk not realizing that their experience is nothing but second hand.

Experiment only with your own time, your own money, your own labour. That’s the honest, sincere type of experiment. It’s rich. The cheap experiment is to use other people’s money, other people’s destinies, other people’s bodies as if they were guinea pigs. This is happening a lot these days.

7. Teach

I can totally vouch for this one. I love to teach and when I started I realized that it is mush more difficult than what it looks like. Often times you have some vague idea in your mind about a topic or may be you know it well but you cannot structure it in a fashion that you are able to make someone else understand. Also, when you teach you have a responsibility so you not only make sure that you have concept very clear in your own mind, you also look for what kind of follow up questions could come up. And as you don't want to look stumped you tend to learn more and more about the subject. The more you teach the more you learn is a proven maxim to go by.

8.Read

This one is no big brainer but I am surprised how most people have an aversion to reading. When you read you are interacting with the person who wrote the book. Imagine talking to Aldous Huxley or Albert Einstien ! To understand what these great minds are saying you will have to come up to their level. This is not easy and you will have to train your mind , sharpen your intellect.

The secret of good reading is this: read critically!

Somebody wrote that stuff you’re reading. It was a definite individual, working with a pen, pencil or typewriter — the writing came from his mind and his only. If you were face to face with him and listening instead of reading, you would be a great deal more critical than the average reader is. So imagine that you have an opportunity to question the author what kind of questions will you ask of him. Which points in the book have made you think and agree and onwhich points you would probably debate. What kind of arguments do you have against what is being said in the book ? Your reading will be more active, more enagaged and the ideas will stay with you forever.

9.Write

To know it — write it! If you’re writing to explain, you’re explaining it to yourself! If you’re writing to inspire, you’re inspiring yourself! If you’re writing to record, you’re recording it on your own memory. You know what you know once you have written it down!

I have had conversations about this with scores of people and almost everyone tells me how can you write ? I just can't sit and keep punching on the key board. It's too boring. What they are hiding is the fact that they cannot write even if they want to. Writing means putting something down for scrutiny of others, it means making sure that you have not just blabbered something out but you have thought about it, you are taking responsibility of what you are saying. Of course, it also means that you have a good command over the written word. This is just too much to ask. But to expand your knowledge you will have to start writing - cross checking, validating, referencing, learning and being open to criticism.

10.Listen

These days we not listen to respond we listen to reply, to give it back. Even before the other person has finished their line of argument or thought we jump to a conclusion that this is what he or she means and then from a pre conceived vantage point we start grabbing the air time. One quote says - You speak so loud I can't hear what you say. And this is so true. You will only raise your voice or drown the others when you know that your words won't stand the scrutiny of reason.Pay attention to the person speaking. Contemplate the meaning of their words, the nature of their thoughts. Grasp and retain the truth.

Of all the ways to acquire knowledge, this method requires least effort on your part. You hardly have to do any work. You are bound to pick up information. But yes be careful with whom you are spendingtime with and what is the quality of interaction.

11. Observe

Keep your eyes open. There are things happening, all around you, all the time. The scene of events is interesting, illuminating, full of news and meaning. It’s a great show — an impressive parade of things worth knowing. Admission is free — keep your eyes open. We can gain tremendously from what is happening to things and people around us. All we have to do is be silent, be receptive and  observe!

Observe the loser that you may escape his mistakes, avoid the pitfalls that dragged him down.Observe the listless, indifferent, neutral people who do nothing, know nothing, are nothing. Observe them and then differ from them.

12. Put in the Right Order

The only good knowledge is orderly knowledge! You must put your information and your thoughts in order before you can effectively handle your own knowledge. Otherwise you will jump around in conversation like a grasshopper, your arguments will be confused and distributed, your brain will be in a dizzy whirling all the time.

This piece is very important for public speaking or making presentations. Once you have all the knowledge that you have gathered and you want to share don't assume that those listening to you have the same privilege of preparation as you have. They probably have little idea about what you are going tell them. Give your presentation a structure, your thoughts a flow, make logical transition from one idea to the other, build a story line. To do all this you will have to spend more time, do more research, fill in the gaps. Your knowledge is bound to increase.

13. Define

A definition is a statement about a thing which includes everything the thing is and excludes everything it is not.A definition of a chair must include every chair, whether it be kitchen chair, a high chair, a dentist’s chair, or the electric chair, It must exclude everything which isn’t a chair, even those things which come close, such as a stool, a bench, a sofa.I am sorry to state that until you can so define chair or door (or a thousand other everyday familiar objects) you don’t really know what these things are. You have the ability to recognize them and describe them but you can’t tell what their nature is. Your knowledge is not exact.

In defining you will differentiate and in differentiating you will learn. A thing is something because its not something else.Try doing this with a leaf you found in the Garden or with a bird you spotted early in the morning that you had never seen before. You will have  known a handsome amount of stuff about the plant or the animal kingdom. Now try and teach it to your children !

14. Reason

Animals have knowledge. But only men can reason. The better you can reason the farther you separate yourself from animals.The process by which you reason is known as logic. Logic teaches you how to derive a previously unknown truth from the facts already at hand. Logic teaches you how to be sure whether what you think is true is really true. 

The best thing about the knowledge gained through reason is that is primary in nature, it is your own truth, your mind has accepted and recognized it so you no longer need to learn it. When you gain knowledge from reasoning and logic it stays with you and sticks to others when you make a point. And reason is universal.What we think is reasonable or logical looks reasonable to others as well if we pick the right facts to base our deductions on.

If you have come across any other great way to learn please list it in the comments. After all it is in teaching that you learn !