Time and place to be sure. Today there are plenty of dilettantes who go around saying that the eruption of information will bring about the explosion in understanding. They ignore the fact that we recognized only concepts and ideas that reflect our experiences, we then file the practical knowledge as the confirmation bias material. Occasionally we can reach a new understanding during a jam session between the beat of life and an artistic disruption. But no amount of information can lit what one hasn’t experienced. This is also true for the abstract science.
The root of the age-old dilemma, one can’t even teach his own child. Tarkovsky speaks about this in Andrey Rublev. This is also the essence of various Jewish legends when Rabbis reject angels who promise knowledge (but never wisdom) as a gift. The riddle of life, by the time you figure it out, it’s always too late. Or too early for others to understand what you mean. Its alway the wrong place and time. A minute too soon, a second too late. The confusion between knowledge and information. The bottleneck is the same and it only lets through a thousand grains of sand at the time.
Photo of the Old Dutch Burying Ground at Sleepy Hollow. Via flickr/darkbrilliance
Further reading:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Intellectually understanding a concept and being able to apply it are also two different things. Some concepts are simple to understand, but incredibly difficult to apply in life. The obesity epidemic in America illustrates this phenomenon perfectly.