The Hidden Cost of Ageism

In our electronic age, we have information at our fingertips. “We can always Google it,” my students say. And they’re right. A few clicks on the internet will bring us instant information on almost anything. But information is not knowledge–which comes from examining the evidence, relating facts into logical patterns, and drawing conclusions based on relationships of cause and effect. And knowledge is not wisdom–which brings us vision and meaning, helping us to better understand ourselves and our world.

Shakespeare portrait.

Source: Richard Burbage/Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Where do we find wisdom today? Indigenous cultures revere the wisdom of elders, drawing upon their wealth of experience. Asian and European cultures still respect the wisdom of age. But Americans, not so much. Discounting tradition, we’re drawn to the ubiquitous promises of advertising and the latest shiny new thing.

There’s a world of difference between knowledge and wisdom. I was always a good student, diligent and motivated, graduating summa cum laude and getting straight A’s in graduate school, for both my Ph.D. in English and Master’s in Counseling. I acquired a lot of knowledge.

But wisdom was another matter. With wisdom, my University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Shakespeare professor, Paul Jorgensen, could pull Shakespeare quotes out of thin air, punctuating class discussions with flashes of insight that helped his students see a larger vision. Energizing and inspiring, his classes brought us greater understanding of Shakespeare and ourselves. He was a dedicated professor, always prepared for class. But more than that, he was prepared by decades of study, close reading, thoughtful research until Shakespeare became part of his long-term memory. With the skill of a jazz musician, he could make intuitive connections, seeing the larger patterns, shedding greater light on questions that arose in class. Mr Jorgensen’s seminars put us all into a state of flow.

And now I know why. Research by Ap Dijksterhuis and his colleagues in the Netherlands has found that with complex matters, intuition—implicit knowledge informed by prior experience—produces greater insight, better decisions than even the best rational analysis (Dijksterhuis, Bos, Nordgren, & van Baaren, 2006; Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). For rational analysis draws upon our conscious knowledge, while intuition draws upon a wealth of stored memories we are not even consciously aware of. This is why with major decisions, the best practice is to examine the alternatives, then “sleep on it,” letting our long-term memories combine and make novel inferences, intuitively revealing the best choice. This is also why experienced masters in any field, like my graduate professor Paul Jorgensen, have a wealth of wisdom that none of their younger colleagues—even the best and brightest—can rival.

This is why ageism in our culture is such a sad mistake, for in discounting the most experienced in our midst, we not only disparage these people and discriminate against them, we rob ourselves of their wisdom and their depth of insight–sorely needed in our fast-paced, reactive times.