Developing Discernment

"In the 21st century, the #1 success skill -- a skill that NOBODY ever seems to talk about -- is discernment." -- Perry Marshall

Most adults reading this grew up in a world where information was relatively difficult to publish, find, and reproduce. We were trained to go to the library with our 3x5 index cards to capture source information for our research papers. Photo and video editing was crude enough that you could readily spot fakes.

Today it's different. Information is readily available on the Internet, and it's just as easy to publish stupid stuff as it is smart stuff. And since stupid tends to shout "louder" than wisdom and sense, stupid tends to prevail.

Discernment has always been important. The only difference today is the increasing volume and variety of the noise.

Discernment is best described as keenness of insight and judgment. Developing discernment requires modeling and practice, it's not inborn.

Here are some suggestions for you:

1. Study the Word. Especially Proverbs.

2. Study the world. Think about causes and effects. Observe patterns of behavior and results (over time!). Think through multiple steps (ask "And then what? And what would happen next? And then after that?"). Smart and Stupid are seen in the study of contrasts.

3. Read history and original sources. Don't depend on the latest buzz and fourth-hand analyses.

4. Associate more with people you recognize are wise in their decision-making.

5. Stick with timeless principles. "There is nothing new under the sun," we read in Ecclesiastes. There's truth in the statement that news is the same old stuff happening to new people. Yes, technologies change, and rapidly. But we have the same kinds of strengths and failings as people from thousands of years ago.

6. Pray for wisdom and discernment, for they are both gifts from God.