Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I find that there are three levels of knowing something. (1) understanding (2) using (3) explaining. Take care when assuming more than we know.

I know a lot of things (there are many more things that I don’t know, but that is another matter). Over the years, I have been privileged to meet many knowledgeable people. I have observed three levels of knowledge.

Know something well enough to:

1. understand it
2. do or use it
3. teach or explain it

This seems to make sense. Problems, however, occur when I am at one level and assume that I am also at another level. For example, I understand how to program in the Java language. I have written a couple of simple, short Java programs. I can’t teach Java programming, and just because I have done a couple of example programs, I cannot profess to be a professional Java programmer.

I work with a lot of resumes. I sometimes wonder if claims on resumes tend to go several levels more than they should.

I now tend to explain these levels to people when I ask them about what they know. I also tend to explain these levels when people ask my what I know. Many people find these explanations irritating. They want one level of knowledge. I suppose one level simplifies the situation, but it doesn’t improve the understanding.