On the Questionable Understanding of Getting Answers

Knowledge and understanding provide answers and getting the answer requires knowledge and understanding. Asking a question and getting the answer or getting an answer right is not the same as understanding it.

Getting Answers Without Knowledge and Understanding Is Cheating

“Psst… The answer is C, kid.”

This might help the kid pass this test, but the answer is meaningless if the kid doesn’t understand it and doesn’t hold the knowledge that the answer is based upon. 

Asking questions like we ask of google doesn’t create knowledge and foster the understanding required for improvement, it creates dependence, reinforces ignorance and leads to failure.

Giving or getting an answer without the requisite knowledge and understanding is about as smart and useful as cheating on a test is smart and useful. 

There might be a short term gain, you pass this test and feel good about not failing, but it does not deliver the competence required to succeed as you move forward into more challenging and deeper waters. And because you passed this test you will be moving on into deeper waters. Moving on to deeper waters without the knowledge and understanding of how to swim is not a smart thing to do. It’s going to end badly.

When it comes to things that we care about; that we’re passionate about, or that have great meaning or impact in our life, simply seeking the answers without putting the time and effort in to gain the knowledge and understanding is, like our 3rd Grade teacher used to say,”only cheating yourself.”

Answers Without Understanding Lead to Ignorance, Incompetence, and Failure

Getting an answer you don’t understand only serves to increase the scale of your ignorance. And the question of the day seems to be,”How can people be so ignorant and incompetent?” And we laugh at people who seem to be displaying the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Seeking cookie cutter answers and consulting the Great Oracle of Google reinforces ignorance and incompetence while creating dependence. It’s a vicious circle. 

Step out of that circle. 

Stop looking for answers and start seeking knowledge and understanding. Google doesn’t train your dog… yet. 

Come Take Classes with Me

Teaching and learning has little to do with giving and getting answers. Giving and getting answers is the opposite of teaching and learning. Teaching and learning are all about knowing and understanding how the answers are attained and asking relevant questions that uncover the reality that leads to the answer.

My job as a dog trainer, writer, and coach is not to give you disc dog and dog training answers. My job is to give you the knowledge and understanding to ask and answer the relevant questions for you and your dog. This will take more time and effort than giving and getting an answer, for both of us, but it will also serve both of us better and be more useful to both of us in the future.

I promise I won’t give you the answers. I also promise that I will try my best to deliver the knowledge and understanding required for you to be able to both ask and answer the questions that are important and relevant to you and your dog.

If this sounds good to you, hook up with us on Patreon and let’s do some work together. Patrons at the Vice Director Level and above get access to multiple classes on our website and direct access to myself and Apryl Lea.

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Responses

  1. I subscribe to your point of view! To be honest I tryed using Pvybe as Google first. Just for looking for a quick answers to specific questions. Certainly I’ve learned something. But now then I just passed a few week of systematic Disc Quan Do Class, I can say that I didn’t really know anything! Needless to say about understanding that I was really doing.

    1. Learning is slow. And then it is FAST. And then it gets all wonky… There is an ebb and flow to it, and it is often messy. I’m kind of a stickler when it comes to giving knowledge away and teaching – it just doesn’t work like that.

      We’re really messed up on that front as a species these days. We seem to think that we “know” things, when in reality we don’t know much that we’re not given. I think this situation it hurts my business, in particular, because I’m not giving answers, I’m delivering knowledge.

      And while I know the knowledge is what people want and need, most people think they just want or need the answer.