Musings of an Old Chemist

A Chemist's Perspective on the Habits and Skills STEM Students Need For Success

Month: January 2026

  • Wisdom: A Function of Knowledge, Experience, Self-awareness, and Faith

    Wisdom: A Function of Knowledge, Experience, Self-awareness, and Faith

    Introduction

    “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it, and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

     – J. Robert Oppenheimer

    A review of 20th-century history reveals a critical, undeniable fact: Intelligence is not a guarantee of a positive result.

    The Manhattan Project stands as a technical masterpiece, having assembled the foremost experts in physics to tackle intricate theoretical challenges surrounding nuclear fission. The team successfully developed and engineered a mechanism to initiate this reaction in a practical setting, meticulously following every step to achieve a logical and verifiable result. However, despite this technical brilliance, the outcome was the creation of a weapon with the power to extinguish human civilization.

    J. Robert Oppenheimer, the lead physicist, later famously quoted Hindu scripture, realizing the gravity of what his “success” meant: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

    How can a project be a perfect success in the lab, but a potential failure for humanity? Knowledge and Expertise do not equate with Wisdom.

    What is “Wisdom?”

    Wisdom as a Mathematical Equation

    If you are entering a STEM field today, you are spending years building your intellect. You are accumulating Knowledge (formulas, axioms, laws of physics) and gaining Experience (labs, internships, projects). These are the tools that help you succeed in the world.

    But intellect without wisdom is just an uncontrolled force.

    “Yesterday, we fought wars which destroyed cities. Today, we are concerned with avoiding a war which will destroy the Earth. We can adapt atomic energy to produce electricity and move ships, but can we control its use in anger?”

     – Robert Kennedy

    To be truly successful – not just as a scientist, but as a leader, and a human being – you need more than just the inputs of knowledge and experience. You need to solve for a different variable entirely. You need to solve for Wisdom.

    Wisdom is not a mystical concept reserved for philosophers on a mountain top. It is a function of four specific variables. And just like any complex system, if you ignore one variable, the equation falls apart.

    Defining the Wisdom Function

    If we accept that Wisdom is the desired outcome, we need to understand the components (inputs) required to generate it. Wisdom is not a random occurrence; it is the result of a specific integration of variables.

    We can define the Wisdom Function as follows:

    W=f(K,E,S,F)W = f(K, E, S, F)

    To solve for W (Wisdom), you must understand the nature and function of each variable.

    1. KK= Knowledge (Your Database)

    In our equation, Knowledge is the raw data. It is the accumulation of facts, information, and established laws.

    Think of Knowledge as the hard drive of your computer (your brain). It is filled with terabytes of information – years of research, chemical equations, and physics constants.

    But a hard drive full of facts has a limitation; it knows that a tomato is a fruit (botanical classification), but it does not know that a tomato does not belong in a fruit salad. It has content, but no context.

    2. EE = Experience (Real-life Application)

    Experience is the application of Knowledge in a real-world environment. It is the process of converting theory into practice through repetition.

    Consider this analogy: experience is the Lab Experiment. You take a hypothesis (KK) and test it against reality. Experience is the collection of data points derived from failures and successes.

    But experience has a limitation: It is reactive. It tells you what has worked in the past, but it cannot always predict what will work in a completely new future environment or application.

    3. SS = Self-Awareness (Internal Calibration)

    Self-Awareness is the understanding of our own influence on the data.

    Consider this instrumental chemistry analogy: Instrument Calibration. In any experiment, the instrument used to measure the data may affect the result. For example, if your electronic balance is not zeroed out (tared), every measurement you take is flawed.

    Self-awareness is the process of checking to see if we’re solving problems the right way, and for the right reasons. It forces us to stop and ask: What am I really trying to do here? Are my actions to benefit the project’s outcome, to fix a problem, or just to make myself look better? Are my personal feelings clouding my judgment? Am I ignoring facts that don’t fit my hypothesis? And ultimately, does the outcome match my core beliefs? If you skip this internal check, all your knowledge  (KK) and experience (EE) may not matter, and the solution will be biased.

    4. FF = Faith (The Constant)

    This is often the most difficult variable for the scientific mind to accept, yet it is essential for the equation. Faith has many forms. There is a faith in a set of scientific axioms or principles, which may or may not continue to be valid in the current situation. There is faith in your knowledge and skill, the ability to adapt and solve any problem you may face. And there is a faith in God or a higher power, which gives you strength and guides your moral compass.

    Faith acts as a moral constant, an internal compass guiding you when all the facts are not yet known. It’s what helps you discern not just what can be achieved, but what is right, connecting what is understood to what is yet to be discovered.

    The Scientific Analogy: A great deal of scientific work starts with a theory or idea that hasn’t been completely proven yet. It’s all built on a fundamental trust – like believing the established rules of physics will hold up in any new situation, no matter what.

    Personal Commentary

    He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

    – Albert Einstein

    Sometimes, because we are trained to be analytical thinkers, we convince ourselves that we are agnostic. And when we look and see something we don’t understand, when we should be filled with awe and wonder, we are so busy trying to find a scientific explanation that we convince ourselves it’s not a miracle, that it is not the act of God or a higher power. Wisdom, for me personally, is my recognition that I cannot underestimate the power of God and his plan. 

    Now that we have defined the variables, we can see how they interact. The mistake most students make – and the mistake the educational system often encourages – is focusing entirely on the first two variables, Knowledge and Experience.

    Two Wisdom Function Analogies

    Scalar vs Vector Measurement Example

    Most of us in the science realm were introduced to the concept of vectors and the difference between scalar and vector measurements in our middle school science classes and again in our high school and college physics classes.

    As a refresher for these concepts, consider the following example: Imagine you were to ask me directions to a local restaurant, and I were to say you drive 45 miles per hour for 15 minutes. This is a scalar measurement. You have no idea which direction you were to drive; you have only one piece of information, the velocity at which you are to drive, and you need the direction. The definition of a vector is that it has a magnitude, in this example, 45 miles per hour, and a direction, let’s say directly east. You now have both components of a vector. The directions to the restaurant are to drive east at 45 miles per hour (vector) for 15 minutes.

    Now, think of your career trajectory as a Vector.

    The sheer power of your abilities, the Magnitude of your professional vector, is determined by your Knowledge (KK) and Experience (EE).

    These factors directly influence:

    • The depth of intellect you can bring to bear on any challenge.
    • The speed with which you can reach a solution.
    • The sophistication and complexity of the problems you are capable of solving.

    A person with great intellect and extensive experience is a force to be reckoned with. However, magnitude is a scalar quantity, it lacks direction.

    The Direction in your life’s “vector” is determined by Self-Awareness and Faith.

    • Self-Awareness provides calibration for the “Why?”: It answers the question, ‘Why am I doing this?’
    • Faith ensures your internal belief system is aligned: It addresses where your actions fit within your personal moral and internal convictions.

    The Guided Missile Example

    Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

    – Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Imagine a missile guidance system.

    • If you have low Knowledge and Experience (Low Magnitude), the missile barely leaves the launchpad. It’s ineffective and harmless.
    • However, if you have incredible Knowledge and Experience (high Magnitude) but lack Self-awareness and Faith to set the coordinates in the right Direction, you have created a disaster. You have a high-speed projectile aimed at the wrong target.

    The STEM Trap

    In your classes, you are graded almost exclusively on Magnitude. Did you get the right answer? Did the chemical reaction work? Did the bridge you designed hold the weight?

    But in life, Wisdom is the vector sum. It is useless to be the smartest engineer in the company if you are building something that ultimately causes harm because you didn’t ask the “faith” or “self-awareness” questions.

    Conclusion

    Wisdom (WW) is the alignment of your Magnitude (K+EK+E) with the correct Direction (S+FS+F).

    Wisdom is not an accident. It is not a trait you simply “pick up” as you get older. It is the deliberate integration of what you know (KK), what you do or have done (EE), who you are (SS), and what you believe (FF).

    If you remove any variable, the function fails.

    • Without Knowledge, you are clueless.
    • Without Experience, you are just theoretical.
    • Without Self-Awareness, you are unreliable.
    • Without Faith, you are adrift.
  • The Grade Illusion: Why High Test Scores Don’t Necessarily Equate With Concept Mastery (And How to Fix It)

    The Grade Illusion: Why High Test Scores Don’t Necessarily Equate With Concept Mastery (And How to Fix It)

    If you are an aspiring STEM student, or the parent of one, I want you to consider a terrifying possibility: It is possible to have a 4.0 GPA and know/retain almost nothing.

    I saw this contradiction in the students I would tutor. They were bright, hardworking, and ambitious. They had mastered the art of getting the “A.” They knew how to take tests, follow instructions, and allocate their time to receive a high score.

    However, if I asked them to apply a physics concept from two weeks before to a new problem assigned that day, they would freeze. Their knowledge of the material (data) was gone.

    This is the Grade Illusion. We have built an educational culture – especially in high-stakes fields like STEM, where the “High Score” has become the product. But in the real world, the test scores from high school and college courses are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is mastering the content.

    If you want to survive the transition from “A-student” to “successful scientist,” you need to understand how your own mind works. You need to stop renting knowledge and start owning it.

    The Knowledge Retention Misconception: RAM vs. Hard Drive

    To understand why intelligent students often feel like impostors, we need to examine how the brain stores information.

    Think of your brain like a computer. You have two types of storage:

    1. RAM (Random Access Memory): This is short-term, high-speed memory storage. It holds the data you need right now. It is volatile; when the power cuts (or the test ends), the data is wiped to make room for the next task.
    2. The Hard Drive: This is long-term storage. It is slower to write to, but the data remains there forever, ready to be recalled years later.

    The modern educational system encourages you to use your RAM, not your Hard Drive. We call this Cramming, or as we discussed in an earlier blog post, the act of memorization/regurgitation.

    When you cram for a calculus midterm, you are loading complex formulas into your RAM. You hold them there—stressfully—for 24 hours. You walk into the exam, dump the RAM onto the paper, and get a 95%. You feel successful. 

    But 48 hours later, that RAM is cleared to make space for Chemistry. The “Save to Hard Drive” function never happened.

    The Science of Forgetting

    This isn’t just a metaphor; it is a biological fact. In the late 19th century, psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus mapped the “Forgetting Curve.”

    The curve shows that without deep processing (the struggle necessary to understand something), humans lose roughly 50% of new information within a day and 90% within a week.

    The student who crams and gets an “A” peaks at 100% on Tuesday morning. By next Tuesday, their retention dropped to nearly the same level as that of the student who failed. The grade is a record of what you knew for one hour, not what you carry into your career.

    From an economics perspective, consider this as the difference between Renting and Owning.

    • Cramming is Renting. You pay a high price in stress and sleep deprivation. You get to “live” in the knowledge for a day. But once the test is over, your “lease” is up, and you are evicted. You have zero equity.
    • Deep Learning is Owning. You pay a “mortgage” of daily, consistent study. It feels slower. It feels harder. But two years later, when you are designing a load-bearing bridge, for example, that physics principle is yours.

    The Illusion of Competence

    “But I got an A!” you might argue. “The test says I know the material.”

    Does it?

    In 1956, in the publication “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals,” a committee of educators chaired by Benjamen Bloom developed a framework to rank levels of understanding called “Bloom’s Taxonomy.”

    Shutterstock

    Most high school tests—and frankly, many college exams—operate at the bottom three levels: Knowledge (learn the formula), Comprehension (understand when to use the formula), and Application (plug numbers into the formula).

    If you are good at memorization, you can ace these tests without ever moving up the pyramid. But a career in STEM fields lives entirely at the top three levels:

    • Analysis: Why did the experiment fail?
    • Evaluation: Which method is best for this specific application?
    • Synthesize (Create): Develop an improved solution that isn’t in the textbook.

    The Illusion of Competence

    This creates the Illusion of Competence. You have a transcript full of “A’s” that certify you are an expert, but your internal drive has never been stress-tested at the “Analysis” or “Synthesis” level. When you eventually hit a problem that requires those skills, you don’t just struggle—you crash.

    The most dangerous side effect of the Grade Illusion isn’t academic; it’s psychological.

    The Performance = Identity Misconception

    When you spend your entire life chasing the “High Score,” you begin to associate your Performance with your Identity. You believe the equation: My Grade = My Worth.

    In STEM, this is lethal. In English class, a grade of “C” might seem subjective. In Physics or Chemistry, a “wrong answer” is objectively wrong. If you tie your self-worth to getting the right answer, every mistake feels like a character flaw.

    You need to adopt the mindset of a Scientist:

    • You are the Learning Process itself. You are the curiosity, the work ethic, the resilience.
    • The Grade is just Data. It is simply the output of a single, specific experiment on a single specific day.

    For example, if a Ferrari engine performs poorly because it had bad fuel, we don’t say the engine is trash. We say the input (fuel) was wrong. Similarly, if you fail a test, it doesn’t mean you are broken. It means your variables—your study habits, your sleep, your preparation—were off.

    A bad grade is not your identity. It is guidance.

    Breaking the Cycle

    Ready to shift from being a “Grade Hunter” to a true “Learner”? Use these two simple techniques to pinpoint where you are in that transition and determine the necessary steps to move forward.

    1. The “Two-Week Audit.”

    I challenge you to a challenging experiment. Take a test you aced two weeks ago. Sit down and take it right now, without reviewing your notes.

    The difference between your score then (95%) and your score now (55%) is your Fake (Lost) Knowledge. That 40-point gap represents wasted energy. It is time spent renting, not owning. If the gap is huge, your study method is broken, regardless of your GPA.

    2. The Feynman Technique (The Ownership Test)

    Physicist Richard Feynman had a simple rule for understanding, which he borrowed from Albert Einstein. To prove you have mastered a concept, you must be able to explain it in simple language, without jargon, to someone who has no background in the topic (like a smart 12-year-old).

    If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it. You have only memorized the definition. You are stuck at the bottom of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

    The Bottom Line

    The world is full of influencers and algorithms showing you the easy way to obtain a high test score on the ACT and achieve the most sought-after degrees, jobs, and accolades. Yet they rarely show you how to retain the knowledge required for long-term success.

    Success in STEM requires three “old school” prerequisites that cannot be skipped: Curiosity, a Passion for Learning, and a Passion for Solving Problems.

    If you have these, the grades will eventually follow. But more importantly, later in life, when the grades stop mattering, the expertise will remain.