As you get older, you may discover that you can barely hold a conversation with some friends you knew in the past. Even when you rarely manage to meet up, there's an awkward feeling between you.
Beyond different living environments and jobs, the "Knowledge Gap" may also be widening the distance between you. When one person isn't growing or is growing more slowly, and your thinking is already at different levels, the relationship gradually fades.
Knowledge Gap means that regardless of socioeconomic status—high or low—everyone's acquired knowledge increases over time. However, people with higher socioeconomic status acquire significantly more knowledge than those with lower socioeconomic status, causing the knowledge gap between these two groups to gradually widen and continuously expand. This is the knowledge gap.
#The Difference Comes from Information Flow
People with high socioeconomic status can easily access core critical information.
On one hand, they clearly know how to obtain missing information. On the other hand, they can quickly apply it after acquiring it.
Simply knowing "what information is lacking" already represents a huge difference. The reason lies in "self-awareness." In one's personal development, our thinking, cognition, and values are influenced by education, economy, culture, family, and many other factors. Getting a person to recognize their own shortcomings and what information they lack is not easy, let alone taking actual action to "acquire information" and close the gap.
However, because of different information flows, people with high socioeconomic status already have a great difference in foundational knowledge compared to those with low socioeconomic status. Let me give a practical example. Nearly ten years ago when I was in graduate school, I tutored students in the area near National Taiwan Normal University, teaching first and third graders how to create websites and use Photoshop!
After spending time with them, I discovered that the third-grade younger brother, aside from computer class, also had German lessons, French lessons, and piano lessons. The entire family had been studying and working in the United States long-term, only returning to Taiwan during school breaks to practice Chinese.
When people start absorbing diverse knowledge from elementary school onwards, how much of a gap will there be if you start trying to catch up only later? And while you're working hard to close the distance, they're also continuing to grow. All you can do is accelerate your own growth efficiency.
#How to Bridge the Information Gap
First, individuals must be "conscious" of wanting to move toward a certain goal or direction; otherwise, it's like driving without navigation—you'll likely take detours or lose your way.
- Develop Self-Directed Learning Ability
(1) Reading is essential: Books are the systematized and contextualized knowledge results of an author's years of experience.
Through reading, you can absorb a complete knowledge system and gain others' valuable experience.
Increasing your reading frequency and time, you'll gradually form your own book selection style and preferences, deepening your knowledge in similar fields.
(2) Whenever you encounter something you don't understand, independently extend your learning to the fundamental underlying issues.
I've noticed that many people can only solve immediate problems under specific conditions. They don't learn to draw inferences from one example, nor do they systematize the solutions as accumulated knowledge assets. Every time they encounter a different situation, they learn anew.
In fact, most self-directed learners have the ability to create and construct their own knowledge systems, replicate experiences, and continuously accumulate. This is how explosive growth occurs, closing the gap with others in a short period.
- Connect Knowledge Horizontally
As mentioned earlier, people with high socioeconomic status can quickly apply knowledge after acquiring it precisely because they possess the ability to connect knowledge horizontally.
To achieve horizontal connection, one method is to "truly and independently complete something"—like a project, a plan, or a long-term challenge. All these projects must have a clear, specific numerical target to measure their success.
For example:
- Complete a 50,000-word book within 3 months
- Prepare an online course in 6 months and raise over 300,000 yuan
- Launch group buying with 50 people purchasing in one week
- Start a charitable donation campaign raising 100,000 yuan in one month
etc.
Why do you need specific numbers?
Because when you're clear about your destination, you start strategizing how to get there. In this process, you actively acquire lacking resources, consolidate them (regarding resource acquisition, see previous articles), and move toward results. When you finally complete the project, you simultaneously gain experiences and resources that others can't take away. Then you replicate.
- Build Networks Across Different Circles
Beyond self-directed learning and horizontal knowledge connection, networks are an important catalyst in narrowing the knowledge gap.
First, if you possess good observational and perceptive abilities, conversing with people from different fields gives you the opportunity to break through your original mental framework, learning things you previously didn't understand. In many moments, you'll genuinely feel the differences between you and the other person.
Then, to gradually narrow this gap, you can:
(1) Elevate yourself to have parallel conversations with others: When you realize you don't understand topics that a certain group of people frequently discuss, you must more actively cultivate yourself.
For example, if there are topics like stock markets, real estate, blockchain, Open AI, profit, equity, etc.—things you completely don't understand—but you want opportunities to join the discussion, you should proactively supplement this information as "completely" and from "multiple angles" as possible, integrate it with your personal experience, internalize it into your own perspective, and exchange information with others. Through this back-and-forth interaction, you can mutually learn.
(2) Consciously expand your network:
"What's madness? Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result." When your environment changes, it influences your cognition; your behavior also changes accordingly.
Thus, in reducing the knowledge gap, consciously expanding your network and community becomes very important. This allows you to continuously inject fresh stimulation, like upgrading a system. Years later, you become a completely new person.
And all of this must begin with "I'm willing."
