The internet bombards you with new information every day.
Most of them are junk.
Your friends’ Instagram stories, funny Tiktoks, and breaking news…
But some others are different.
Like when you read an article with useful ideas.
You want to remember and use them in your life.
In other words, you want to transform that information into wisdom.
They are close terms, but with nuances:
- Information: Descriptions, facts, news, or data with context
- Knowledge: Practical understanding of information gained by reflection
- Wisdom: Applying the knowledge as better judgment
Let’s visualize it as a funnel.
I’ll use last week’s concept, loss aversion, to give a concrete example.
- Information: You read the description of loss aversion.
- Knowledge: You reflect and understand how loss aversion causes people to make certain decisions.
- Wisdom: You apply your knowledge in your future decisions to improve your judgment and take reasonable risks.
Think about it.
You forget most information you read or hear.
If you internalize it as knowledge, you remember it for a while. But your mind deletes it when you don’t use it.
But when it reaches the wisdom level, you almost never forget.
So now the question is, how can you retain more of what you learn, so the useful information you learn becomes wisdom?
Three tips to retain more of what you learn:
1- Have a healthy content diet
Could Einstein come up with the theory of relativity if he was watching 6 hours of funny Tiktoks every day?
Probably not.
When you expose yourself to tons of junk content, your mind gets overwhelmed.
And the useful information starts leaking out of the funnel.
Because you have limited attention every day.
So have a “diet” to reduce the low-quality content you consume.
This will ensure your mind has enough energy to process what matters.
In the end, you become what you consume.
2- Learn connected topics
Let’s say you want to become a better investor.
And you’ve learned about loss aversion.
Great.
Now, learn a new related idea (e.g sunk cost fallacy).
It will not only give you new knowledge but also make you remember loss aversion better.
It’s like building a web of ideas, so you can recall (and use) each part easier.
3- Use spaced repetition
You know it from college.
Study for 2 hours once a week, you forget.
But study 15 minutes every day, you remember.
Why?
Because you allow your brain to digest what you learn during your rest time and sleep. And before forgetting what you learned, you keep building on the knowledge the next day.
So take notes of the useful ideas in your own words — remember The Feynman Technique. And review them regularly.
The more you remember what you learn, the more you’ll use it in your life.
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References: Rowley, Jennifer (2007). “The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy”
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