Knowledge is the Fuel, Intelligence is the Engine

This morning on my commute I was listening to the Motley Fool Podcast interview of A.J. Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs went on a quest to become the world’s smartest man by reading the whole encyclopedia. He has written a book called “Know-it-all.”

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/3179

In this interview Mr. Jacobs comments that “Knowledge is the Fuel, Intelligence is the Engine.” How true this is…

We are living in an environment where knowledge in abundant. Knowledge is created at a pace today we have never seen in all of human history. More than just the creation of knowledge, access to the knowledge is readily available and cheap. The Internet is the prime example of knowledge accessibility. In schools, libraries and our homes we find access to knowledge that exist as well as a view into the “crucible” where knowledge is created. Further, we can jump into the “crucible” at any point to join in the forging of new knowledge. We are at a unique point in human history.

Intelligence is another issue. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence) As I look at the world around me I find that intelligence is scarce. I do understand that not every one has the same I.Q. or abilities. We are all different in many ways and that is generally good. However, when people are faced with the simplest of knowledge, they do not know what to do with it. There is a blankness or paralysis when faced with knowledge. There is a lack of taking the next step (that only humans can do) and discovering insight and developing an opinion and then making actionable decisions. It is in the place where these actionable decisions are created that work is done, money is made and lives become simpler.

We humans seem to be developing tools that can handle and process more and more knowledge, but we as humans are not evolving our intelligence fast enough to keep up with the processing. We need more capacity to make useful decisions with the available data. So we build a faster and bigger computer (with our knowledge) that can turn data into information and crunch information into knowledge. But what are we doing with this knowledge? Are we now creating knowledge for the sake of creation? Have we created such a stockpile of “Fuel” that our “Engines” will never burn it all?

I’m glad Mr. Jacobs you are the smartest man in the world, truly I am glad. Why? Because now I know that I am not the smartest man in the world and that takes a lot of pressure off.

Now, what are you going to do with all that knowledge?