Real and Superfluous Knowledge - The Difference

 ‘Bhaiyya,’ said Rinku. ‘Rahul believes every single forwarded message he gets and forms his opinions and decisions based on that.’

‘But how do I know what’s real and what’s not?’ said Rahul. ‘They look equally believable.’

 ‘True,’ said Rakesh. ‘But as adults we should discern between what’s real and what’s not to make the right decisions. Real knowledge comes from experts who have put in a large amount of time and effort in understanding a subject thoroughly. Superfluous knowledge comes from piecing random data with no basis or depth.’

‘But we can still get fooled by superfluous knowledge right?’ asked Rahul. ‘How do we know?’

‘True,’ said Rakesh. ‘Can you differentiate between your Professor who has studied and taught a subject for decades, and someone who has merely listened to his lectures for a year and has started teaching?’

‘Yes,’ said Rinku. ‘Our Professor would have depth. He’d encourage questions, answer them, make us look deeper. He’d focus on improving our understanding, not showing off his knowledge.’

‘The other guy would read out the main points, not go in depth and sidestep questions,’ said Rahul. ‘He’d only be interested in showing off and convincing us that he knows, not in imparting true knowledge. We’d have to go for tuitions after that.’

‘Right,’ said Rakesh. ‘Real experts operate within their Circle of Competence – they speak only about what they know and openly admit to not knowing what’s beyond their competence. They’re secure enough to learn about what they don’t know from their students even. Superfluous knowledge operates on thin information, so the person is insecure and never accepts his limitations. The difference then – experts recognize the limits of what they know and seek to clarify through facts, while fakes defend whatever little they know and obfuscate the issue by distracting through sensational or emotional statements.’

‘Hmm,’ said Rinku. ‘We can differentiate between political agendas and fake news also by using this.’

‘Yes,’ said Rakesh. ‘To spot real information check for credibility of source, depth of knowledge, facts,  official statistics and authentic images. Superficial knowledge shows up as general statements, hearsay, partial truths, misleading images and emotional appeal. If it doesn’t ‘sound’ right or you get a ‘sense’ of it being untrue, verify facts using fact checking sites like snopes.com before forming opinions and forwarding them.’

‘True bhaiyya,’ said Rinku. ‘Real information makes us feel like we have understood all points of view leading to considered and compassionate decisions, while fake information makes us take sides and get emotional and irrational.’

‘Thanks bhaiyya,’ said Rahul. ‘So less forwarding and more checking when we sense the information isn’t true, for better decisions.’

Pro tip: To make good decisions, develop a critical mindset. Check facts, evidence, credibility of sources, evidence and how it ‘sounds’ to form opinions and make informed decisions.