The Role of Wisdom: Information vs. Transformation

The purpose of wisdom

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School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1511 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” — Aldous Huxley, 1932

How do you define wisdom?

For thousands of years, wisdom has served as a topic of philosophical discussion. Like other complex and nuanced terms, it’s less easily defined than it is recognized.

That is, we can better understand wisdom when we see examples of it.

When we look to leaders to be examples to us, we’re tacitly seeking evidence of their wisdom through their decisions and communication. We then relay those anecdotes to others to share that wisdom and build confidence in our leaders.

Mitch Albom did this extraordinarily well in his bestseller Tuesdays With Morrie. He reconnected with an old professor of his, Morrie Schwartz, who was dying from ALS.

In a series of discussions over the course of less than a dozen visits, Morrie conveyed wisdom to Mitch in …