I participated recently in a community meeting where someone reminded those present of the concept of “slow knowledge.” Originally coined by David Orr in the 90’s, the basic premise here is that wisdom is gained in inverse proportion to the rate at which information is ingested. In other words, the faster we try to absorb what’s being thrown at us, the less we will be able to be formed by what we know.

            As we all experience in one form or another, the amount of content available to us and the rapidity with which that content comes to us has only accelerated since Orr first wrote. The idea of engaging information slowly is countercultural, for sure. And yet, Orr makes the argument that we are made to be more intentional in our learning; more experiential and reflective. He cites nature in support of his argument, and writes, “Except for rare episodes of punctuated equilibrium, evolution seems to work by the slow trial and error testing of small changes. Nature seldom, if ever, bets it all on a single throw of the dice.”…