The Half-Life of Wisdom

The half-life of information is six months. The half-life of wisdom is a lifetime. Plan accordingly. Many facts have a shorter half-life.

The Half-Life of Wisdom

The half-life of information is six months.
The half-life of wisdom is a lifetime.

The self is not infinitely elastic. It has potentials and it has limits. If the work we do lacks integrity for us, then we, the work, and the people we do it with will suffer.

Fundamentally, there must be a blend and a balance among your intellectual quotient, your emotional quotient, and your spiritual commitments, as you move from the notion of learning to the motion of acting. Thinking without action is futile, action without thinking is fatal, and doing either without a deep commitment to community, interpersonal collaboration, professional competence, and personal confidence is to fail.

Perpetual optimism, positive attitudes, and purposeful performance lead to positive actions.

Excerpts from section 7 “Seek Wisdom, Competence, and Confidence” of  “Slow Down to Speed Up” by  Ronald J. Stupak and David S. Greisler (2003)

Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast

The Navy Seals have a mantra for grace under pressure: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Wisdom allows you to plan and practice your efforts in advance, minimizing wasted effort. It also allows you to anticipate what may go wrong and take steps to reduce the risk of errors or poor outcomes.
Wisdom also enables you to appreciate what is essential, allowing you to connect each step to a bigger picture. Once you have a “why,” it’s easier to persevere and to adjust methods to achieve the desired outcome. Wise people don’t just rely on pattern recognition and muscle memory; they are comfortable working to checklists, departing from them where necessary, and revising them based on new experiences and information.
If you think of wisdom as the ability to identify what is essential, craft a plan to achieve it, and maintain a continuity of purpose despite setbacks, then the half-life of wisdom flows from how fast you are learning. And how fast the start of the art of evolving for a particular practice or discipline.
“It is a human inclination to hope things will work out, despite evidence or doubt to the contrary. A successful manager must resist this temptation. This is particularly hard if one has invested much time and energy on a project and thus has come to feel possessive about it. Although it is not easy to admit what a person once thought correct now appears to be wrong, one must discipline himself to face the facts objectively and make the necessary changes — regardless of the consequences to himself.”
Hyman Rickover

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