the difference between knowing smthing and relying on authority is that in the former the idea came from your own reflection, unlike the later in which case you are just repeating someone else's words the advantage of knowing something is that you can navigate around easily in the tree of knowledge taking the example of broccoli, someone says "broccoli is healthy" and you want to figure out if this person is relying on authority or actually know the stuff, and this person (Bob), says this: >Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable rich in essential micronutrients and bioactive compounds. Upon ingestion, the human body metabolizes these nutrients, such as vitamins C and K, folate, and potassium, which participate in critical physiological processes, including collagen synthesis, blood coagulation, DNA replication, and electrolyte balance. Moreover, broccoli contains glucosinolates, which undergo enzymatic hydrolysis by myrosinase to form isothiocyanates. These compounds induce phase II detoxification enzymes, enhancing the body's ability to neutralize and eliminate carcinogens, thus reducing the risk of neoplastic transformation. here, as you can see, Bob broke down the high level idea "broccoli is healthy" into lower level knowledge, imagine it as a [[051124 2471 tree|tree]] where each time Bob break down an idea into lower level ideas which are lower level also see: [[The Bible]]