Information vs. Knowledge

This will be a quick post, and I think that a shorter article with less information is only fitting for the topic we’re discussing today!

Here’s the infographic that inspired this writing. You can click on it to see the original post.

We’re in the middle of really strange times, if you think about it: we not only want more information than even – we also have more information that ever. 

I don’t think it’s worth going through a “chicken and the egg” type scenario, but it’s worth considering the possibility that our thirst for information may actually come from and cause the fact that we have more information than ever before.

You see,  I’m not all that convinced that actually want more information. We think we do, but I’m pretty confident that what we’re actually looking for is more knowledge. And because you don’t really find knowledge – you typically experience it – our problem is compounded even further.

We’re looking for the wrong thing in the wrong places. Even if we discover what the right thing is, we’re not in the right place to find it; even if we go to the right place, we’re not even looking for the right thing to begin with.

When it comes to information versus knowledge, we are dealing with a relatively new issue. There have always been more books than we could ever read, so that much has been here for a while. But with the Internet and it’s increasing vastness, we feel more lost and more behind than ever before. We have so much information at our fingertips that we don’t know how to sort through it all – so, we look for information on how to sort through it all, and we begin the whole process over again. 

This little graphic struck me to the core as I sat and thought about how wonderful true knowledge is when it comes to health and fitness, faith and theology, and all the little things in life. In all of these areas, a certain level of information needs to be collected before you can connect the dots – you do need the dots if you want to connect them!

But how overrated the pursuit of more dots is! This pursuit is often good, no doubt, but I’d argue that it’s still largely overrated as shown by how insatiable our thirst is for more dots compared to the effort we put into connecting them.

Anyway, it’s worth considering how this little graphic fits into your own life. Do you spend most of your time seeking new/more information? Or do you spend it on trying to make sense of the information in order to gain true knowledge?

This is a faith and fitness page, so let’s talk about both of those categories for a second.

Do you spend more time “proving” your righteousness, or finding ways to love and give and serve?

Do you spend more effort looking for the best workout programs, or simply trying things out and analyzing what’s working and what’s not?

Do you spend more focus on what you don’t know, or on learning what to do with what you do know?

If any of this information connected with you to form some knowledge, it might be a good idea to keep this ball rolling. Keep looking around and within to see how far this information versus knowledge mindset extends in your own life. 

(This is a slight tangent, but related enough to make it worth sharing here! “Imperfect action always beats inaction.”)