What a poker game, a sword fighting technique in Jin Yong’s wuxia novels, and a wheelmaker in Zhuangzi can teach us about specific knowledge.
You’re playing a game such as poker, and you have just bluffed your small hand. Your goal by bluffing is to scare all the other players into folding and quitting their hand. Who has an edge in winning this round? The fellow who just learned the rules of poker earlier that day and for, or someone who had a mentor teaching him poker, and reads books studying poker in his free time?
At first glance, it seems like the player who puts effort into studying poker will be more likely to call the bluff and win the round. After all, more knowledge is always a good thing, right? However, upon closer inspection, it might be the player who has just learned poker that very day who will be the likely winner of that round. Why is that?
The more experienced player who studies poker would probably be more cautious. When you bluff, he remembers his poker training, crunches the odds in his head, and speculates that there’s a high chance you have a powerful hand. As a result, he decides this is too risky and decides to fold. You win the pot.
On the other hand, the novice player who just learned poker would have no idea about the rankings of the cards. He’ll mistakenly think his hand is very powerful when it’s nothing more than a small hand. When you decide to bluff, he thinks his hand is powerful and can beat you, and once the cards are revealed, he ends up winning the pot.
A few months ago I was reading about a successful Indonesian businessman by the name of Bob Sadino who pioneered the concept of “stupid learning.” While a “stupid” person might start a business as soon as an idea pops into his head, someone else who has more education might start second-guessing himself and never end up establishing a business.
By now, we can see that just because one is more “educated” in the conventional sense does not mean he will necessarily be at an advantage. But hey, you might be wondering, this doesn’t seem right. After all, what is the point of learning then? If the person who has less knowledge ends up being at an advantage, then why find a teacher, why read books, why learn?
In short, the point of learning isn’t to necessarily learn the fixed facts and steps for a topic. Instead, the importance of learning is to arrive at the essence of the subject matter.
In Jin Yong’s wuxia novel Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Feng Qingyang explains to his student Linghu Chong that there are two types of people that are unpredictable when engaging in swordplay. Those who have never learned it, and those who are so advanced that they have already grasped the essence of swordplay and “forgot” the moves.
Who’s the most predictable in swordplay? The intermediate student who has already learned several sets of moves from his master.
Who will end up winning a sword fight though? The master who already “forgot” his moves and is no longer constrained by fixed sequences of moves.
At this point, I do want to mention that to arrive at such a level, one will likely have to go through the phase of learning fixed sequences of moves beforehand, before he can fully grasp the essence. However, in the novel, we can see that not everyone will eventually be able to get the “essence” of sword fighting. While most characters in the novel are pros at sword fighting, the characters that end up grasping the “essence” and come up with their own techniques on the spot while fighting are few and far between. After all, words are not enough to describe the “essence.” One has to feel it through experience.
We can see a further elaboration of this concept in the Zhuangzi. Duke Huan, who was in the middle of reading a book on statecraft, got interrupted by his wheelmaker, Bian, who explained to him that the book the duke was reading was merely the “dregs and remains” of the words of wise men. Bian elaborated that when he makes wheels, he cannot be too gentle or slow; neither can he be too forceful or fast. Instead, he has to strike a balance that he cannot put into words, so even though he is 70, he cannot pass on the skill to his son.
I’ll have to admit that I’m a bit of a bookworm, and the first time I read that passage, it did not sit fully well with me. However, upon further reflection, I realized that Bian was right. No amount of books and theory can substitute for experience. In fact, the Chinese have a saying 紙上談兵 which means “discussing military tactics on paper,” to describe Zhao Kuo, a general who in the Warring States Era of China, more than two thousands years before the modern day phenomenon of Hearts of Iron 4 players spending their days online critiquing World War 2 generals for how they fought their battles.
In my computer science classes in college, simply reading the textbook will do no good. One has to adopt an algorithmic way of thinking in order to pass classes and eventually program software projects. When I learned to invest, simply reading about how to invest is not enough. The books talk about taming your psychological biases and urges and being more rational, but it was only through buying a share of GME in January of 2021 and feeling anxious through the ups and downs of the stock that I started realizing how important your psychological state is when playing the stock market.
In our current society, more people than ever are attending university. While that is no problem in itself, we have to remember that theoretical knowledge is no replacement for experience. A term popularized by the investor Naval Ravikant, specific knowledge, which refers to knowledge gained from experience, is just as important, if not more important, than theoretical knowledge.
At the end of the day, it’s the poker player with years of experience and gets the essence of poker who realizes that you were bluffing all along. He will be the winner of not only this round, but probably the entire poker session as well.