Understanding Understanding

Richard Saul Wurman — 2017

This is a book for people to dip into, as they would walk in and out of the room of a dinner party and embrace their interests. Before Information Architecture, before the rules on how to organize information, before you learn grammar, before you work hard at expanding your vocabulary and go through the exercises of parallel meanings of things as using a Thesaurus and as one writes papers in class, before any learning one must understand. Understanding Understanding precedes the whole process of learning, of giving yourself permission to understand the formations of facts, data, stories, pictures, words, conversations that allow you to understand. This book could be called A Celebration of Conversation or Musings with my Mentors. It is about the fantasy of being the dumbest person in the room and being able to identify all the myriad connections of how others think, talk, explain and visualize. The following is a collection of many of the most interesting idiosyncratic paths of understanding that lead to creation.

Reviews

Julien Sobczak@julien-sobczak

Apr 3, 2023

"It seems the more we have access to information, the less we seem to know," says Oliver Jeffers, one of my favorite children's book authors. "Understanding Understanding" is a more personal book than the author's previous titles on the subject. It's his last book, the last conversation with us on his favorite subject, the special moment between ignorance and comprehension, on which everything stands since understanding always precedes action. The first 50 pages capture the essence of understanding (duplicating sections that you may find in "Information Anxiety" volumes). The remaining 500 pages are the manifestation of understanding through the life and opinions of famous artists, musicians, architects, and so on, whose which the author conversed in the past. It's a unique book. You can never know what you will discover when turning the page. You will not really learn how to understand but you will see it. The book is an invitation to climb the train of understanding and meet people that go up a long time ago and never go down because even if we ignore the destination, as long as we are on the path to understanding, we will always be on the right track. If you have never read the biography of RSW, do it. There are too many notable works to fit this book review. Richard Saul Wurman spent his whole life driven by curiosity. This book will teleport you to incredible places. Trust me, you will enjoy the journey even if the start can be perilous as finding a copy of this book is challenging. Richard Saul Wurman writes, "If I don't ask, I won't get." I applied the lesson and I'm so glad to be able to write these few words.