In yesterday’s post, I discussed wisdom’s relation to curiosity and knowledge. How does insight factor in?

Psychologically, insight is the process and outcome of crystallized, meaningful realization.

With no insight, could we have wisdom?

Let’s adopt the data scientific view of wisdom following from knowledge, where knowledge is meaningful information. Here, we have stumbled upon meaning!

Meaning is part-and-parcel of both knowledge and insight. Specifically: an insight occurs to me after exhausting my efforts trying to solve a problem. Insight presents itself as an answer worth testing at the least; at the most, it bolsters my resolve with conviction and energy.

Insight is achieved after information has been placed in its proper, solution-focused context. After ensuring that it is genuine (because the insight works for our specific purpose), we may say that it has given us knowledge.

Given the above, we know that insight is a necessary step toward attaining wisdom. Logically–therefore–clarifying the distinction between insight-driven knowledge and wisdom becomes the next, salient task.