Most people want to succeed. Just as many want to do right with their lives. So perhaps the essential question how to balance these two powerful, but often contradictory human drives? Well, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe in ‘Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing,’ believe this balance will come from embracing one integral human quality that is in grave danger of being drummed out of daily life ... wisdom.
Wisdom, Schwartz and Sharpe say, is learning "the right way to do the right thing in a particular circumstance, with a particular person, at a particular time." Wisdom is the inner quality that combines what we learn from our own experiences and from others with our empathy and intellect. The authors build this book upon a premise from Aristotle, which maintains that wisdom must be applied to every day situations for it be truly effective. Aristotle famously taught that the ability to frame and assess each situation on its own merits, and then chart the best course forward, is ‘practical wisdom.’
The authors assert this type of wisdom is sorely lacking in much of modern society, particularly in essential areas like medicine, law, education and business. They then outline the core idea in this book, which is that the overabundance of rules that govern work has resulted in people emotionally and intellectually disengaging. Wisdom is strangled out of the system because individuals are not encouraged to think for themselves within a larger framework, but instead are micro-managed. The research that the authors highlight to prove this assertion is both saddening and troubling, and it makes you realise just how dehumanising some societal systems have become. The point is that teachers, doctors and lawyers begin to operate too robotically, and lose their ability to see beyond the surface levels of their pupils, patients and clients. This means that these essential professions begin hurting rather than helping people.
One of the central stories in this book is about a hospital janitor named Luke. Luke has just cleaned the room of a coma patient, but the patient’s father, who is grieving and distraught, does not notice and angrily tells him to clean it again. The author’s applaud the wisdom of this ordinary janitor, as he does not give into the temptation to lash back, but instead recognises the father’s grieving process and calmly cleans the room again.
The authors use this story to argue that we need more people like Luke in fields such as medicine, law and education, but key to this happening is to clear out the unnecessary rules from every day life and grant people more individual discretion. This is because: “Detailed rules and procedures, however well intentioned, are undermining the skill that wisdom requires.” The book repeatedly mentions “canny outlaws,” people who at great professional risk, work both within and outside the system. A “canny outlaw” educator, might for example, ignore the overly scripted teaching that education departments require, and teach their students what they really need according to their own unique contexts.
Another interesting point raised by these authors is that monetary incentivisation almost never creates sufficient space for wisdom and learning within individuals, and instead can often become a pathway for personal corruption. Here the book cites examples in the medical profession, where doctors are paid for each person they see, and not for the overall quality of their care.
This book does a brilliant job of analysing a crucial problem that is weakening society in several key areas, but while everyone can see the value of practical wisdom, the one big problem in this book is that, ironically enough, it needed to be more practical. The authors do survey some best practices, but the key learning areas identified are not applied enough to everyday life. The final chapter on true human happiness, while again making some wonderful points, does not do justice to an area that is foundational to practically living wisdom.
Despite this weakness, I would still recommend Practical Wisdom as a starter in this important topic. Statistics not withstanding, mere common sense will tell you that wisdom is sorely lacking in our society, and that we are deeply hurting as a result. This in itself makes this book worthy of your attention.