Knowledge changes perception.
That is one of its greatest uses.
It is also one of its risks.
The source explicitly attributes a useful metaphor to Werner Erhard: do not place what you know as a lens between yourself and what you are dealing with; let it illuminate the situation instead.
The distinction is between using knowledge and seeing only through knowledge.
Expertise can reveal structure a novice misses.
It can also create premature recognition.
We know this kind of problem.
We know this kind of person.
We know how this always turns out.
The new situation disappears behind an old category.
Illumination works differently.
Prior learning remains available.
It helps identify patterns, risks, and possibilities.
But the situation is still allowed to correct the knowledge.
Good expertise does not require forgetting what we know.
It requires enough presence to discover when what we know is not yet the whole of what is here.

An attributed distinction about knowledge: learning can illuminate what we are dealing with without becoming a filter that prevents fresh observation.

The source explicitly attributes a useful metaphor to Werner Erhard: do not place what you know as a lens between yourself and what you are dealing with; let it illuminate the situation instead.

The distinction is between using knowledge and seeing only through knowledge.

Expertise can reveal structure a novice misses.

It can also create premature recognition.

The new situation disappears behind an old category.

It helps identify patterns, risks, and possibilities.

But the situation is still allowed to correct the knowledge.

Good expertise does not require forgetting what we know.

It requires enough presence to discover when what we know is not yet the whole of what is here.

Knowledge Can Illuminate Without Becoming a Filter