Be intentional in your search for knowledge and wisdom on how to live. Focus on getting the most from the time you devote to learning. I have found several principles helpful in my pursuit of knowledge.

The primary reason for focus is the vast amount of information available. I was overwhelmed by too much information when I began my search. I was not sure which topics would be most relevant. I did not know which sources were best in each field. I did not know who to believe.

There are so many sources of information. Friends and relatives, community leaders, formal classes, books, religious texts, videos, podcasts, and now artificial intelligence can all yield useful information on living. The potentially relevant topics are also vast. There are obvious ones, such as philosophy and religion. But wellness, history, psychology, fiction, biology, and others could be useful.

The abundance of useless and bad information further complicates effective learning. I have read my share of books pitched as insights into a better life that were a waste of time or, worse, led me astray. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is not easy. Good guidelines are needed to find the gems hidden in the mountains of information.

My early efforts to gather the essential knowledge for living well were meandering. I wasted time and made mistakes. However, I slowly developed a strategy to be more effective. The following are some guidelines for doing that.

Favor Time Tested Sources

I favor focusing on information sources that have withstood the test of time. In the marketplace of ideas, I believe the best ideas prevail. Books highly rated over centuries, or even millennia, are likely to be more valuable than the latest self-help fad that shot to the top of the charts. Once I started favoring the classics, whether fiction or nonfiction, the value I got from reading improved immensely.

Evaluate Contemporary Sources

Selective sourcing also works in other areas. Starting with the classics is easy, as we are familiar with them. It is more challenging with contemporary sources, whether they are books, podcasts, or Substack newsletters. Here, I have found that doing quick research before investing time pays off. Reputation is far more important than popularity. For example, I look for authors and content creators who are well-respected in their field for being thoughtful. Whether they were best seller or not makes little difference.

Choose Credible Advisors

I learned to seek and listen to the advice of people most likely to know what they are talking about. I have had advice from professors, coworkers, bosses, friends, parents, and other relatives, some of it invaluable and some of it terrible. Examining the foundation a person has for their advice is critical. Do they have the knowledge and experience necessary to provide wise counsel? Do they live according to their advice? Or is there a disconnect between their words and how they live?

Seek Diverse Perspectives

It helps to seek a diversity of perspectives. Include sources you may not like or agree with if they present their perspectives well. I have fallen into the common trap of confirmation bias. Once we form our own opinions on a topic, we tend to seek sources that reinforce our biases. The depth of our knowledge and wisdom is far greater when we know all sides of a topic. I want to learn enough to be confident in my beliefs. But I also want to be satisfied with my reasons for rejecting an idea.

Be Skeptical

Always proceed with skepticism. Determining the truth of the information we find is another challenge. Information becomes knowledge if it is true. We need it to be true enough to act upon as we try to live a good life. But what information is true? How can we tell? That is a topic for a separate essay. However, I have found that skepticism and reason are the best tools in my quest for truth.

Emphasize Practical Knowledge

Emphasizing practical knowledge is another effective approach. Aristotle distinguishes between conceptual and practical knowledge. Practical knowledge concerns how to apply other knowledge to the problems of living. It is not knowledge for its own sake or just because it’s interesting. It is not theoretical knowledge about fundamental truths such as quantum mechanics. Practical knowledge is knowing how to plan, decide, and act.

Create Knowledge

Some knowledge for living well does not exist in a useful form. It must be created. Often this involves discovering how to apply a learned principle to a specific situation. It contrasts with knowledge someone else has captured, and you can learn from them. The knowledge you create is vitally important to living well because of its relevance to your situation.

Experience and thinking are how we create this type of knowledge. Often, experience is necessary for a full and nuanced understanding of a concept. Sometimes, we create knowledge by combining different ideas and what we have learned through study in unique and meaningful ways. We should proceed like good scientists. We must master the known scientific knowledge to be proficient in our field. But then we must experiment and discover or create new knowledge.

Avoid Common Failures

There are many failure points in the search for knowledge. Time can be wasted gathering useless information. We can believe certain information to be true only to discover later that it is wrong. Through inattention, important lessons can be missed; forcing us to learn the hard way through experience. We can repeat mistakes because we don’t learn a lesson the first time.

I have made all these mistakes and more. Some mistakes were part of the unavoidable messy nature of life and learning. But we can do a better job learning by having a plan, being selective, being skeptical, and maintaining a focus on learning. It does not have to be a haphazard process.

Seeking knowledge and wisdom is not a fool’s errand, even though there will never be certainty. There is always more to learn and advances in knowledge. Perspectives matter. It helps to be humble and skeptical about what we know and what we can know. However, these cautions should not stop us from trying.

Learning what you need to live a fulfilling life is not a passive process. Do not wait for knowledge to come to you. Seek it out.