Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  .This section is about knowledge.  ---  1/24/2006


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  (1) A person can be intelligent (high IQ) but dumb (unknowledgeable).  (2) A person can be knowledgeable in one area, but ignorant in another.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  (1) Great ideas make life easier, help us save resources, help us develop and get goals.  (2) Lesser ideas: don't as much.  (3) Bad ideas: do opposite.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  (1) Other terms that are similar to knowledge: information, ideas, thoughts, mental content, propositions.  (2) Philosophers have a technical use of the term "knowledge" to mean "justified, true, belief".  See: Philosophy, epistemology.  (3) There is an enormous amount of "background" knowledge that humans possess.  Subconscious knowledge that a person knows but is not consciously aware that they know.  (4) A body of knowledge or set of knowledge has a structure.  Some knowledge depends on other knowledge.  One can view a body of knowledge as a web (coherentism, holism).  Or one can view the structure of knowledge as an edifice built on a foundation (foundationalism).  (5) Types of thinking produce types of knowledge.  (6) Knowledge depends on memory.  Knowledge is stored in memory.  Knowledge is retrieved from memory.  (7) Animals, including humans, are information processing machines.  (8) Thinking is a mechanism that can produce knowledge.  ---  12/5/2005


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  A culture or an individual has a set of ideas; some true and some false; some ethical and some unethical.  One can call this set of ideas the beliefs of the culture or individual.  ---  11/20/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  A paradox of knowledge.  (1) Knowledge during eras when the quest for knowledge is stagnant.  You return to your studies from a ten year absence and almost everything you learned ten years ago is still true.  "Look how much knowledge this culture has.", you say proudly.  Yet the quest for knowledge is stagnant in the culture.  (2) Knowledge during eras when the quest for knowledge is advancing rapidly.  You return to your studies after a ten year absence and almost everything you learned ten years ago is now wrong because new knowledge has made your old knowledge obsolete.  "Almost everything this culture knew ten years ago is wrong.", you lament.  Yet the quest for knowledge is advancing rapidly in the culture.  ---  11/20/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Applying knowledge to behavior.  Knowledge put into practice.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Change in conceptual organization.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Classic ideas transcend time and place.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Development of knowledge.  (1) Initial ideas on x.  (2) Ideas after any time period.  (3) Final views.  (4) Change in views on x: degree and rate.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Faulty knowledge (wrong or omitted) vs. faulty reasoning processes.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  For every subject.  What you need to know and why.  What you'd like to know and why.  What you should know and why.  This is the basic knowledge pool.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Four types of knowledge.  (1) Knowledge for your job (practical, necessary).  (2) Knowledge for your hobby (for the love of it).  (3) Knowledge for living (wide and theoretical).  (4) Knowledge for your special contributions (narrow).  ---  11/27/1993


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Gain knowledge.  Use knowledge.  Create new knowledge.  Create new solutions to problems.  ---  12/16/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Given my memory limits, how much of each, and how to organize my (1) Book knowledge (found).  (2) Personal knowledge (figured).  (3) Practical knowledge (for me living) (important, need to know).  (4) Theoretical knowledge (want to know, but do not need to know).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How knowledgeable do you have to be to (1) survive vs. (2) grow vs. (3) be complete.  How fast can a person reach and stay at any level?  What's the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to get to any level?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How many arguments, on how many views, on how many subjects, do you know?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How many new ideas will you get in your life?  When was the last time you got a new, great idea?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How much do you need to know about what in a situation to get how far?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How much does the average person today "know"?  The stuff they learned in school.  The stuff they learned outside of school.  The stuff they got from the media.  The stuff they figured out for themselves.  The physical skills.  The mental skills.  The body of factual information.  The body of working hypotheses.  The information in verbal form.  The emotional information tied to the verbal information.  The experiential knowledge.  How much information is that?  How can it be recorded and represented?  How much of that information can be transmitted to other people?  ---  2/15/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  How wise are you?  (1) How many factors in a situation can you spot?  (2) How well can you tell how they work?  (3) How well can you tell which are most important?  (4) How well can you tell what to do?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Importance of knowledge: the more ideas you have to choose from the freer you are, the smarter you are, and the better the chances of finding right answer.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Individual knowledge vs. societal knowledge.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Information management perspective.  Speed you get information (finding or figuring).  Weed out lies and extraneous unnecessary b.s.  Replace poorer information with better information.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  It is not what you knew, or what your test scores are, or what you know, it is what you can use.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge can help reduce pain of (1) Not knowing what's going on and why.  (2) Wrong ideas that don't work well.  (3) Confusion, anxiety, and future mistakes.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge dispels fear.  ---  9/16/1998


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge is power.  Knowledge is health.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge pool breadth and depth.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge.  (1) Things every world citizen should know about earth.  What would that that knowledge set look like?  (2) Things every sentient being should know about the universe.  What would that knowledge set look like?  ---  12/14/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Knowledge.  Two extremes.  Imagine someone with absolutely no knowledge of their own personal history (amnesia), and with absolutely no knowledge of world history.  Imagine someone having extremely detailed knowledge of their own history, and having extremely detailed knowledge of world history.  Total ignorance versus total knowledge.  ---  3/25/2006


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Maturity = knowledge of life.  Metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical knowledge.  Practical knowledge, emotional knowledge, and experiential knowledge.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Most people keep their knowledge secret, or play dumb, for survival advantage, or because they don't communicate well.  Most people expose their knowledge only as much as needed.  So you get three groups: the dumb, the acting dumb, and the people driven crazy by the above two.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Needs.  Given x person in y situation, what will (and should) their thought trains be?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Needs.  Given your psychological condition, and situation, what should your knowledge goals be?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Needs.  Knowledge and behavior needed to survive in a situation for any type of person.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Needs.  What does the average joe need to know to survive and to grow?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Needs.  What does x person in y situation need to know?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Pool of knowledge.  Deciding (in an ever expanding pool) (1) What to memorize, (2) What to understand, (3) What to have in your personal library, and (4) What to expose yourself to (newspaper, magazine, library, bookstore, walking around, traveling).  ---  09/01/1994


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Rate your gaining knowledge at any age, factors that affect it, what increases it, and what decreases it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Sometimes you don't know for sure till you do it.  If we could predict everything with 100% accuracy then what kind of world would it be?  Boring, with no freedom and no chance of variance or change.  ---  2/3/2001


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Suboptimal attitudes toward information and knowledge: (1) Knowledge is power; therefore, knowledge is to be hoarded like power is to be hoarded.  (2) Knowledge is property; therefore, make them pay for any knowledge you give them.  (3) Use knowledge for competitive advantage.  Keep others stupid and ignorant.  (4) Keep everything a big secret.  Lie when you have to.  (5) The above are unhealthy attitudes toward knowledge.  ---  2/15/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  The quality of the ideas you use to boot up, every moment.  In terms of truth and importance.  The source or origins of these ideas, found out and figured out.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Three levels of knowledge.  (1) Practical (here and now). (2) Wisdom (wider subject matter, and more abstract).  (3) Greatness (contribution to a field).  Must have all three.  ---  04/30/1993


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Total ideas that individual or society is possessor of, vs. available currently, vs. being used currently.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types of knowledge, as opposed to types of thinking.  (1) Knowledge of self, people, and world.  (2) Working knowledge: retrievable instantly or on demand.  (3) Instinctual knowledge: knowledge working in your unconscious.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types of knowledge: street smart vs. book smart.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types of knowledge.  (1)(A) Knowledge as a result of figuring out for ourselves.  (B) Knowledge as a result of finding out from other sources.  (2)(A) Knowledge we are reasonably sure of.  (B) Knowledge that we are tentative on.  ---  6/16/2004


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types.  (1) Impractical vs. practical.  Theoretical vs. factual.  (2) Specific vs. general.  Concrete vs. abstract.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types.  (1) Knowledge of what, why, how.  (2) Metaphysical, epistemological ethical, aesthetic knowledge.  (3) Knowledge of existence, structure, mechanism, purpose etc.  (4) Knowledge of a skill, best solutions, best techniques (technical knowledge).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Types.  (1) Working knowledge vs. (2) knowledge we have down on paper vs. (3) knowledge we thought of, and then forgot.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  What do we know, and how do we know it?  What don't we know, and how can we find out?  How can we prove our knowledge more (stronger proof).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  What information do I need, and what's the easiest way to get it?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  What is knowledge?  What you know consists of what you can speak or write about extemporaneously, i.e., immediate access to knowledge on demand.  ---  3/20/2007


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  What to understand, and what to memorize?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  Why know it?  Why is knowledge of it important?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, knowledge.  ---  You know something when you are able to teach it to another person.  ---  12/14/2005




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.