Wisdom is extracting facts from data, then identifying which facts matter.

Wisdom, on this view, is a two-step discipline. First you pull facts out of the raw noise of data, and then you decide which of those facts deserve your attention. The second step is the harder one, because a world full of measurements and headlines hands us far more true things than we can use. Being informed is not the same as being wise. The wise person is the one who can say, "Of everything I know here, only these three things bear on my decision."

The idea echoes the old information-science picture of data, information, knowledge and wisdom as rungs on a ladder, and it also recalls Aristotle's practical wisdom, the knack for seeing what matters in a particular situation. Since the line is anonymous, there is no single author's outlook to lean on, and its origin can't be traced reliably.

Imagine you're choosing between two job offers and have a spreadsheet of salaries, commute times, perks and reviews. Collecting those numbers is the first step. The wiser move is to ask which of them will shape your daily life in five years, perhaps the quality of your manager and the chance to learn, and to let the rest fade into the background.