#compound-knowledge #fundamental #epistemology Knowledge is a tree whose root is a fundamental block on which all nodes and branches rest. To best understand a specific node in the tree, you need to understand the root, otherwise you only have an illusion of understanding. It is also more efficient, say you can understand many parts of "sales" and "marketing" by just studying "psychology" for 2 hours instead of studying both for 4 hours. **Some forms of knowledge generalise better than others**. I like epistemology of [[David Deutsch - The Beginning of Infinity|David Deutsch]], which consists of 5 trees: - [[Fundamental laws of physics]] - [[Fundamental laws of computation]] - [[Fundamental laws of biology]] - [[Theory of evolution]] - [[Theory of knowledge]]