The Most Dangerous Knowledge

There is a common phrase.

Knowledge is Power.

There is some truth to this.

In general, it is better to have Knowledge than not to have Knowledge.

Having Knowledge allows the potential for more insight.

For instance, if you are running a business, you want more Knowledge about the problems that are happening so that you can fix them.

Knowing the problems gives you the Power to fix them.

However, there is a hidden danger in Knowledge as well.

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Ironically, that quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, but there doesn't seem to be evidence that he ever said this, and there is a large number of people who have been credited with saying other similar things.

Regardless of who said it though, it points to one of the largest dangers of Knowledge.

Having Knowledge that actually isn't true.

I have seen this problem play out in business many times.

I have seen Leaders come harshly down on teams who genuinely were attempting to fix the problems.

I have also seen those Leaders hold no accountability on other individuals because the Leader knew they were, "always doing good work."

Come to find out that those individuals without accountability were the reason that so many problems were occurring.

Leaders' "Knowledge" of things that weren't true often ends up losing them millions of dollars, not to mention wasted manhours focusing on the wrong things.

I have also seen Leaders who were confident that problems weren't occurring in certain aspects of their systems, and so left them unchecked.

Eventually, sometimes years later, the problem is found where the Leader "Knew" it couldn't be.

Variations of this happen so often in the world.

I do a lot of research into various aspects of Psychophysiology.

So often I hear, "X is a great solution because of Y!"

When you look for research that shows Y, and you actually read what the research says, it states, "X is a bad solution, because we could not prove Y due to Z reasons".

Recently I found this to be true while doing some research on Sulforaphane.

However, I've also found this to be true of things like Iron, Ascorbic Acid (which is not Vitamin C according to the research), Salt, Fats, and more.

I have seen frequently what scientists "Know" to be true has blinded them from seeing what mountains of evidence say otherwise.

You can look at other problems and see similar things.

What about all of the "Stop using paper and save the Rainforests" campaigns in First World Countries?

The idea is we "Know" that the rainforests are being stripped, so we "Know" that if we stop using paper that we'll save the rainforests!

But is that true?

Do you really think that paper companies in First World Countries would be stupid enough to illegally obtain trees from a completely different part of the world, with high shipping fees, knowing the complete revolt people would have if they found out?

Have we seen any slowing down of rainforests being cut down illegally?

No, because the paper in First World Countries was never the problem.

So often we start battles against things we "Know" without actually understanding reality.

Down the line, that reality is what ends up destroying so much.

It destroys businesses, destroys reputations, and even destroys lives.

What I would advise is to never assume that you have complete knowledge of anything, ever.

Not even complete knowledge of yourself.

Oh, the number of Leaders who thought they knew everything about themselves only to watch everything around them crumble from everything that wasn't so.

You may have good ideas about things, but always be open to being wrong and being proven wrong.

Always get data rather than assume.

Stay humble and understand that you know far less than you think you know, and the things you "knew" were true could change over time.