The value of knowledge is not the knowledge itself, it’s how you use the knowledge.
Mind Map Journal
The meaning of the quote
In July 1919, Henry Ford sat in a witness box in Mount Clemens, Michigan, and failed a history test in front of the whole country.
Ford had sued the Chicago Tribune for calling him an “ignorant idealist,” and the paper’s lawyers set out to prove it by quizzing him on American history. In the book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells how one lawyer asked how many soldiers the British sent to crush the rebellion of 1776. Ford said he didn’t know the exact number, but he’d heard it was a lot more than ever went back.
When the questions kept coming, Ford pointed at the lawyer and said:
“…I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question…”
The jury ruled for Ford and awarded him 6 cents.
Ford couldn’t recite history, but he knew where to find any fact he needed and what to do with it once he had it. Knowledge stored in your head is worth little until you put it to work.
Hill built a whole chapter of his book around this idea. He wrote that people who believe “knowledge is power” have it wrong:
“Knowledge is only potential power.”
Hill said it turns into power only when you organize it into a plan and act on it.
Someone keeps a 400-day streak on a language app and freezes when a waiter speaks to them in Spanish. A friend watches 20 videos on fixing a bike chain and still wheels the bike to the repair shop.
Action steps
Knowledge you never use tends to fade, so give it a job soon after you learn it.
- Use it within 24 hours.
Pick one idea from what you read or watched today and try it before tomorrow ends. In the book Ultralearning, Scott Young calls this directness, which means learning by doing the thing you want to get good at. - Teach it to someone.
Explain it to a friend, a sibling or a page in your notebook. If you can’t explain it in plain words, you’ve found the part you need to learn again. - Learn with a purpose.
Before you start a course or a book, write down where you’ll use it. Like Ford, you can look up most facts when you need them, so spend your effort on what you’ll use.
Ford walked out of that courtroom 6 cents richer and still shaky on his history dates. Then he went back to building cars.
He knew which button to press.
Resources
- Think and Grow Rich (Book)
- How to Own Your Own Mind (Book)
- Ultralearning (Book)
- Sketches from the Ford-Tribune Libel Suit (Article)
- Henry Ford (Wikipedia)
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