It isn't the How, It's the Why

When you hear the cliche that knowledge is power, you should take that thought further. If knowledge is power and power can be turned to economic gain, what is knowledge worth? I think that we are willing to pay for in the economic world of is not so much the knowledge of how things work, but the knowledge of why things work. There is one codicil to this theory, but I leave that until later.

Consider the lowly disposable battery. The guy that makes the battery is paid pretty well, I imagine, but this product has become a commodity, therefore economy in production and scale will encourage further and faster modes of automation eliminating the human factor as much as possible. Certainly a child of four knows how to change or install new batteries, so field technology is non-existent. No, the real money to be made in the battery field is in dreaming up new batteries that are better and more functional than the current product. To do that you have to know more than how batteries work. You have to know why they work.

I don't know about you, but suspect that most of us are somewhat expert in certain area of how, but the why of things that we use everyday is a mystery to most of us. I know how and just little bit of why my car starts and propels me down the road. I know enough about my computer, but I'm saved from embarrassment constantly by my kids who bale me out on operational issues and software manipulations all of the time. (Thank you all for being so patient and understanding.)

My one exception to the rule is the person who knows the art of the thing besides the science. I remember well the days when we would set up two packaging machines side by side on production lines. In theory they should be set up exactly the same and should run identically. These machines had computer and digital controls. Mechanical operations were reduced to a minimum. But there always was a reason that one machine ran slightly different from the other. Discovering that reason and compensating for differences was the art of the thing. The person who could diagnose and allow for the differences was in high demand and paid very well, but than that was because he knew not only the how, the why and the art of the thing.