Beyond the Paradox....

Now for a look at the wisdom part. What exactly is wisdom? Well, you can slice this pie a thousand ways. And slice it again and again but for our purposes we shall define wisdom as the best use of available knowledge.

Vague? Yep.

But it boils down to specifics. Context specific. Another paradox perhaps? Let's take a look. How do we know we have made the best use of the available knowledge? Well the only way to know with certainty is to look at the results. What did the application of this knowledge produce? How can we know if it best? How about the effect of the process used to transform this knowledge into a specific and desirable result? Does the process also have to be wise?

What about the source of the knowledge itself? Reason? Science? Intuition? Experience? Revelations? Insights? All are potential sources of wisdom. The key element is in the application of knowledge. Does it lead to value creation for self and others? Of course all this really means is that wisdom itself is paradoxical.

So lets get practical. If it is to be called wisdom it must create value in the context in which the knowledge is applied. That's simple enough. That is until we consider what is meant by value. Then its not so clear. Value is at the core of what wisdom is really about.

Value is the worth and usefulness of a thing or outcome. So, in this blog wisdom will be defined as the application of knowledge the produces the best results, where best is defined as the highest valued outcome for both the applicant of the knowledge and for those who are affected by it.

Last thing to consider is that value itself has a time value. What this means is that we can act with wisdom and produce wise results but long term consequence may not stand the test of time. Hmmm, yet another paradox.