Observe and Improve

“Measuring things brings knowledge.”  Dutch saying

How often have you made an assumption, and been wildly wrong?  Probably more often than you are willing to admit, because this is what we do as humans.  We guess.

But instead of just guessing and relying upon our gut (usually wrong as Kahneman observed in his Nobel Prize winning work), what if we took the time to slow down and really observe, to measure and calculate.  To layer understanding on top of this, and build rational and functional comprehension that can then be extended, albeit with continued observation and updating?  This is the path to knowledge and wisdom.

We used to think the Earth was flat, until we measured the length of shadows and compared length of days across the year and latitudes.

We used to think that different humors carried throughout the human body, until we observed and measured things.

We once thought many things that have been disproven via the scientific method, and even crude measurements like how many calories you eat in a day or how many minutes you practice lead to better understanding and results.  We don’t need to know everything down to the subatomic level, but paying more attention is one of the best ways to get better results in almost all endeavors.