Carved on the wall at University of Chicago is a quote from Lord Kelvin that says, “When you cannot measure, your knowledge is meager and unsatisfactory.” He’s not wrong, but the danger is assuming that if something can’t be measured it doesn’t matter. The opposite is true: Some of the most important forces in the world—particularly those regarding

Being accurate in your judgment of what you know and don’t know is critical for decision making.

The largest library in disorder is not so useful as a smaller but orderly one; in the same way the greatest amount of knowledge, if it has not been worked out in one's own mind, is of less value than a much smaller amount that has been fully considered. For it is only when a man combines what he knows from all sides, and compares one truth with ano

There are many viable definitions for that word, but I’m referring to a very specific person here: An expert is someone whose thinking is regularly sought and paid for. That’s different from your father-in-law who opines about everything, without invitation, as if he has a prepared speech, and every pause in what has been to that point a conversati