Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life

by Eric Greitens

One of the people who has helped me think more clearly about the value of mentors is the British philosopher Michael Oakeshott. He taught that every activity relies on two kinds of knowledge: technical and practical. Technical knowledge can be captured in writing, rules, and mechanical practice. You grow in technical knowledge by absorbing information, not by doing. Practical knowledge, on the other hand, “exists only in use . . . and (unlike technique) cannot be formulated in rules.” It’s passed on by experience, through communities. It’s the kind of knowledge that we learn directly from others—as coaches teach players and masters teach their apprentices. I like to think of this as the difference between “knowing that” and “knowing how.” You can learn facts on your own. But if you want to know how to do something—from baking a cake to writing a story to disciplining a child—you usually have to be shown. The best mentors show us how.