I’ve always found it interesting that the military forces and spy agencies in the world call information as intelligence. As a kid, I found it cool to call this intelligence, but always wondered why this is so.

Turns out, the reason is the “ladder of knowledge” (or chain, pyramid, etc). There are many versions of this on the internet, but here’s how it goes:

1. Raw Data - observations & measurements. A recording of what’s actually happening. Not very useful by itself

2. Information - context & connections. Seeing what the data means and how it’s interconnected

3. Knowledge - action & application. How things play out in the real world & which patterns of data support it

4. Wisdom - learning why it works, with the pros & cons clearly visible

As you can see, each builds on the previous. If you don’t have data and information, the rest is not possible. This is the exact process of turning information to intelligence.

In business, unless your systems deliver at least information, you will not even know what’s happening. That is why management information systems (MIS) are a big requirement for any enterprise. This is the whole reason why reports and dashboards exist.

Once you have that, make sure you take the next step of systemizing Knowledge & wisdom!

Here’s a cool visual (the whole damn website, actually) I found that conveys this properly, and is an ode to what this article says also: