We know a lot of the world around us, however, we often lack an intimate understanding of it. Because a lack of understanding can lead to misinterpretation of what we know I find it important to be aware of the difference between knowing and understanding.
In this age of information it is hard not to know something about everything, a simple search provides us with a lot of information on any topic. However, we often don’t realize the limitation in doing so as we are all subject biases. Of these biases the conformation bias might be one of the most important in our age of information. Our expectation, world view or surroundings have a huge influence on our search behavior. For this reason the answer we find, and therefore the information we then know, might not me (completely) correct.
The weird thing is that we all have trouble noticing if we understand something or simply know about it. How many people, for example, are afraid of radiation while most are barely able to grasp the basics? How many students fall into the trap of thinking they know enough and fail because knowing does not equal understanding?
In short; we should realize that we barely understand most of what we know. Even though knowing is often enough it might be worth the effort to delve a little further in order to understand. It might take some effort but it could save you some worry or make you pass that dreaded test.
As I learned from my kids, keep asking yourself “ Why?”
Disclaimer: Some of you might recognize an extremely simplified version of the cognitive domain from Bloom’s taxonomy. If this is new to you, it might be worth having a look, just so you know about it J.