Big Picture

The return on an investment in “How” is much less than the return from an investment in “What”.

Learning about “What” concerns itself with things like “what exists?”, “what do people want?” and “what can be done?”. Learning about “How” concerns itself with “how is this done”, “how does that work”, “how do they do that”. Knowledge about “What” leads to answers about “when” and “why”. These kinds of answers lead to leverage which can lead to profit. Learning about “How” is easy but leads only to competition. Anyone can learn “How” to do something, but if they don’t know when or why, then they’ve only positioned themselves to be used like a tool.

Tools are interchangeable so the ones who know “How” are easily swapped around leaving them with no real power over their destiny. Tools can also become obsolete and get replaced by something better. If the only goal is acquiring knowledge about “How” but no research into “What” has been done then good decisions about picking the “How’s” to invest in can’t be made.

To be really useful as an individual or company, it’s knowledge about “What” that is most important.