The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion

by Tim Challies

We hear little about wisdom today. Instead, we hear more and more about the importance of information—about the virtues of information and the benefits of more information. But it is important to recognize that information and wisdom are not the same thing. In the 1980s, Russell Ackoff, longtime professor at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, popularized what has since become known as the DIKW model, a model that aptly marks the progression from data to wisdom. Ackoff suggested the following progression: Data — > Information — > Knowledge — > Wisdom At the most basic level, we have data, which simply describes one or more symbols. A letter, an emoticon, a list of numbers within a spreadsheet—these are all data. They represent raw symbols and have no meaning outside of their context. As we collect data into a kind of cohesive whole we create information. Information answers basic questions about the data: the who, what, where, and when? Information is data that has been assigned some kind of relational connection or has some kind of meaning. If we add a heading to a list of numbers in a spreadsheet, we have made data into information; we have turned a list of numbers into a list of prices or ages or totals. We now know what these pieces of data are meant to represent. When we collect, collate, and compare pieces of information, we have acquired knowledge. Knowledge makes information useful.

Knowledge is a “general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principles.”2 Finally, when we use knowledge to make good decisions, when we apply facts and knowledge to life situations, we express wisdom. Wisdom combines knowledge with experience to live with virtue. Every day we encounter data, information, and knowledge, yet God calls us to live with wisdom.