Facts in themselves don’t solve the problem. Facts are only meaningful when they relate to a concept that you can grasp.
If I say an acre is 43,560 square feet, that is factual but it doesn’t tell you what an acre is. On the other hand, if I tell you that an acre is about the size of an American football field without the end zones, it is not as accurate, but I have made it understandable. I have made it infinitely more understandable to most Americans because it is as common a plot of ground as we have. We have a sense of that size. And you don’t have to play football to know this.
You only understand information relative to what you already understand. You only understand the size of a building if there is a car or a person in front of it.
You only understand facts and figures when they can be related to tangible, comprehensible elements.
- Many people suffer from “innumeracy”, an inability to comprehend numbers
- Imagine if people’s height reflected their income
- Man has been called the symbol-making animal and knowing the symbol is a prerequisite to use and understand anything
- Advance organiser - to help people understand new info in terms of what they already know
00:16:05 You only understand something relative to something you understand and when numbers or sizes get bigger than you can put relative to your understanding like any stories about space you really shaking your head at. That’s all.. You don’t really understand. We can’t comprehend it.
How much 1 Trillion dollar is?