There is a proverb which states that giving a man a fish will let him eat for a day, but teaching a man to fish will let him eat for a lifetime. How often this man practices the skill of fishing will determine how much independence he will gain. It is a simple skill. The things that will only get in the way of this simple skill are all of the extraneous bits of information like conservation, techniques, types of bait, conditions, and so on that will only serve to confuse him. At this time, all he needs to know is how to catch a fish. Sharing the basic knowledge of how to fish will break the dependence the man has upon your daily generosity. The more he practices this skill will determine his proficiency. The greater his skill with fishing, the better able he will be to comprehend the more complex concepts. He has gained a competitive advantage over those who do not have this fishing skill because he has started the process of developing cognitive skills. Information is everywhere. Information is a commodity that you can either keep or you can share. Although information is everywhere, the most valuable information is that which is factual and known to few. There is so much information available to us that we get into trouble when we are faced with information overload. Receiving unnecessary information in the form of multiple and complex data sets, some of which may conflict with itself, will exceed your capacity to process any of it. The result is an inability to make good decisions. Being inundated with information can get in the way of converting it into healthy knowledge. A reader who studies books on fishing will gain a large amount of information on how to fish from many sources, some of it conflicting or just plain wrong. They may actually learn too much information and be unable to successfully fish. A person who consistently fishes will gain verifiable information specific to the application of the fishing skill. They will have learned only the information which they need to successfully fish. The problem is when much of the information provided is biased or incorrect. What we want to do is avoid this misinformation. This means that we must boil down the information to get only what applies to what we need. We then have to verify what information is actually factual and use that to create our knowledge. Knowledge is not power. Valid and accurate knowledge is a strength. You become stronger the more knowledge that you accumulate. Sharing knowledge increases its acceptance and multiplies its strength. The more people who possess the same knowledge, the more that it becomes established as factual. The more that knowledge becomes established, the stronger that knowledge will become. The sharing of knowledge is an investment in the independent freedom of an organization. When everybody has the same knowledge it becomes very difficult to introduce misinformation. Experience is power. The application of knowledge is how you gain experience and experience is how you gain skills. Experience turns information into a skill. Perfecting that skill gives you power. We know this as factual by looking at our own society. There are people considered experts in what they know or do, the elite with expertise far surpassing the average individual. These are the people to whom we listen and follow, the ones that hold the power because they have experience far in excess of our own. We can all have the knowledge of cognitive skills, but only the experienced will be able to utilize those skills effectively and therefore have the power over everyone else. If everyone can read, but not write, then the person who can write is King. Teaching a man to fish merely shifts his dependence. It is not enough to be taught knowledge. Understanding a process will not be enough to create your independence.