Author: William Kerr

Before changing something we could take a moment to think on why that certain something is the way it is. Those before us may have had a reason for making certain choices, possibly having had some understanding or experience that we presently don’t comprehend.

Chesterton’s fence, an example of second order thinking, looks at this from the perspective of coming across a fence that has been erected across a road. In G.K. Chesterton’s words,

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer. “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

G.K. Chesterton

Maybe some redefining or redesigning of outlooks and/or perspectives might create what is truly needed. Change may be too big an endeavour while slightly altering how we see something might be a bit easier and more effective.

There seems to be a distinction, which is sometimes missed, between people who ‘know the name of something’ and people who ‘know something,’ an observation from physicist Richard Feynman.

The first, ‘knowing the name of something,’ is surface knowledge, something we have borrowed and not integrated into our own being. The second, ‘knowing something,’ is from those who’ve done the work, paid the dues and integrated it into their own work.

Reading, listening and learning is a form of borrowing. Until the time is spent and work done integrating it into what is already known, it remains borrowed.

‘Knowing something’ then becomes part of who we are, part of our opinion of things, as long as we have done the work required to hold such opinions. If we haven’t done the work required to hold certain opinions, we only ‘know the name of something,’ which is worth very little if anything.

One of the challenges coming from this, as Charlie Munger explained, is getting the responsibility of issues into the hands of the people who ‘know something’ and away from those who just ‘know the name of something.’