October 03rd, 2025

The etymology of wisdom is wis - to be learned, and dom - judgement.
Wisdom has evolved in language to now mean a person with knowledge and skill making sound judgements. 

We live in a world with so much knowledge at our fingertips and yet not a great deal of time spent applying that knowledge. As person in the climbing industry I see so many who learn the mechanics of belaying and then their knowledge stops there. They apply it in the very prescribed way the climbing gyms have made possible. Climbing gyms in an effort to protect their livelihood have narrowed the possibilities of things that can go wrong because of this lack of wisdom. 

When I first went into climbing gyms, the routes could meander and cross over each other when lead climbing. Climbers understood the practice of looking where the route would go and making decisions about which quickdraws and when they would clip them. Now gyms set routes in very narrow corridors to avoid cross over, the quickdraws are much closer together to avoid big falls, and the setters often allow for good clipping positions to remove the risk of a fall while clipping. These changes to how we approach climbing in a gym have been developed to prevent incidents. Consider that when I started climbing, I learned outside on traditional style routes. The potential for a serious fall had potentially bigger consequences so I was forced to understand how to prevent those consequences, or suffer life altering consequences. 

I do not think climbing is the only arena in which this is playing out. Folks going to school with an emphasis on consuming information and regurgitating it rather than applying due to the vast amount that is expected to be learned. I am curious where this will lead. Wisdom is often gained through the experience of applying knowledge in a variety of milieus. Relating what seem to be very different ideas to create something new.

Blooms taxonomy is a description of how one can assess the depth of learning. The lowest level of learning is in the realm of recall or remembering something. The middle level of understanding is analyzing something and applying the knowledge to make a judgement. This would be like assessing someone's belay skill and experience with a belay check. The greatest depth of learning is assessed by determining if the person can use the information to create something. If you wanted to assess a person's knowledge of climbing movement skills, you could ask them to set a route. Can they create a series of movements that are possible for a particular audience?

Consider how we take information on the internet or shared in programming as truth without critically thinking about whether it is perhaps not actually true. I hear these "truisms" all the time in climbing.

• You cannot ground fall after the second clip.
• Double wrapped belay bars are safer that single wrap.
  
• The Petzl Gri Gri is safer than a passive belay device.

The real answer is that with each of these truisms, there are circumstances when the statement is not true. But to understand the real truth requires more depth of understanding about lead falls, the forces, and weight differences, anchors, friction, and mechanics. We are moving perilously close to math with these conversations and to have this conversation requires time. Humans do not like uncertainty, preferring absolutes and easy answers. It creates a false sense of certainty and reduces our anxiety. It also absolves us of responsibility. 

Is our desire for expediency interfering with our ability to develop wisdom. Is it giving us a false sense of security?
​Love to hear your thoughts.