"How Much Is Knowledge Worth?"

This article is Lu Canwei's 56th original piece.

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I don't know if you've noticed, but many people claim to have read a lot of books in a year, over 100 in total. In the past, when I heard this, I would call them impressive. However, when we read more than 40 books in half a year, I found something particularly interesting: for most books, I can remember no more than 20 words of content.

Interestingly, there are some books for which I might have even written articles, yet when you ask me, I might still be unable to express it.

Forgetting is a special function of our memory. It allows us to retain only important and relevant information, alleviating the spatial pressure on our brains, which is very positive.

Our current information is becoming increasingly fragmented, to the point where we need to establish dedicated knowledge bases for storage. Regarding knowledge, we have started to prefer "fast food," such as learning XXX in thirty days, mastering XXX in twenty-one days, or finishing XXX in thirty minutes. We begin to pursue more and more practical content, becoming obsessed with the essence of masters.

By learning practical content, I can remember the core ideas more quickly. However, in the face of the great demon of forgetting, all of this is in vain.

Why do we always forget important knowledge so easily? Because knowledge is not valuable.

This might differ from our common sense; isn't it said that "there are treasures in books" and "there are beauties in books"?

Take the economic principle mentioned in the book "This is Enough Reading." There is a classic question: why is water so cheap while diamonds are so expensive? The reason is that a person's willingness to pay for any item is based on its marginal utility, that is, the additional benefit the item provides. Conversely, marginal utility depends on how much of that item a person possesses. Although water is essential, the marginal utility of an additional glass of water is negligible because there is so much of it. In contrast, no one needs diamonds to survive, but because diamonds are so scarce, people perceive the marginal utility of an additional unit of diamond to be very high.

Knowledge is similar; we can access knowledge just by opening our social media feeds, and public accounts push it directly to us. The marginal cost of acquiring new knowledge is almost negligible, and the marginal benefit of new knowledge is also nearly negligible. Therefore, from an economic perspective, while knowledge is a good thing, it is not valuable.

These so-called practical contents distill the least valuable core ideas and eliminate the cases that could help us understand better.

Most people may prefer physical books; a physical book costs dozens of yuan. If we spend dozens of yuan and can apply even a tiny bit of content from the book to our daily lives, then the value of that tiny bit of content far exceeds the cost of purchasing the book.

So how do we combat this great demon of forgetting? Some suggest using the forgetting curve to understand and utilize the laws of forgetting. Did you think I was going to talk about Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve? Not at all.

I resonate with the saying that the brain is meant for thinking, not for memorizing.

I wonder how everyone learns mathematics; no one learns math through rote memorization, right? Of course, the multiplication table is an exception. In most cases, we understand principles through different examples and then learn math.

Our brains work the same way. If we rely on identical memories for recognition, we would end up like machines, mistaking bananas for hot dogs. Moreover, we wouldn't have evolved to this point; our brains learn through different examples, find patterns within those examples, and through forgetting, we relearn examples to make comparative analyses of patterns, allowing us to internalize knowledge.

Why are training sessions often ten or a hundred times more expensive than books? Because training typically involves scenario simulations and explanations through different examples, guiding thought processes to help you learn the knowledge in the book.

So how do we learn without training? As you read more, you'll find that many people interpret related knowledge in different ways. When you start to think and observe from various angles, your brain will find patterns and understand knowledge on its own.

So how do we truly understand? Simply put, read more, think more, and write more. When knowledge becomes a part of you, it becomes valuable.

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I hope you don't always think about getting rich quickly; slowly becoming wealthy is what we can achieve.

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