The Learning Engine

24 September 2025

Newsletter 035: The Underrated Power of Background Knowledge

Greetings and salutations!

A big thanks for reading this newsletter — this edition will focus on the power of background knowledge, with some implications that you can use in your life.

Let’s get into the ideas, stories, and questions!

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Ideas

The power of background knowledge is underrated.

Humans have a reasonable understanding of simple one-to-one relationships: One part changes, which makes another part either go down or up. Many parts of our everyday life work through these one-to-one relationships, which makes us comfortable with the relationship.

However, humans are much worse at understanding more complicated one-to-many relationships. One example is kinetic energy, which is related to the velocity-squared. Imagine getting tackled by someone walking at 1 mph — this would be more of a bump, which might not even knock you over. Now imagine getting tackled by someone running at 10 mph. We might think this would hurt by a factor of 10, but the velocity is squared — so this would hurt badly, by a factor of 100!

Background knowledge works with the same general ideas as kinetic energy: Background knowledge comes from the number of schema in your conceptual model, with each schema being connected to other schema. (Note: A schema is a small chunk of knowledge or skill for a particular domain.) Increasing the number of schema is not a one-to-one relationship; rather, the relationship is one-to-many!

To illustrate this point, the image below show the schema (represented by the black dots) and the connections between each schema. Without knowing what happens to the number of connections we might naïvely expect to see a one-to-one relationship, but going from three schema to nine schema shows a massive difference in the number of connections!

Here is the idea with larger numbers: The x-axis is the number of schema, starting at 1 to going to 100. (For most conceptual models that are important for a domain, 100 schema would be around the start of the intermediate stage — experts have thousands of schema in their conceptual models!). The y-axis shows the number of connections: At 100 schema, there are almost 5,000 connections! The function is a curve, which means the relationship between the number of schema and number of connections is a one-to-many relationship. Adding more schema to your conceptual models increases the connections between the schema, resulting in the stronger and more deeply knowing the knowledge and skills in those conceptual models!

This compounding nature for the connections between schema is what makes the power of background knowledge underrated. Building schema into conceptual models in one domain allows us to learn more quickly and efficiently in that domain, accelerating our learning — plus we can connect the conceptual models in that domain with other domains, helping us to learn other domains more quickly and efficiently!

Implications

• The hardest part for learning in any domain is the very beginning. We have limited knowledge and skills for the domain — that’s why this is the beginning! — so we are constantly challenged by any task in the domain. As we persevere through the challenges and gain more knowledge and skills, we connect and organize the schema for each knowledge and skill into coherent conceptual models. This is the learning process, which we continue to use as we advance in the domain.
• The more connections we have, the more creative we can be — both within the domain and across domains. True creativity requires a deep understanding of the knowledge and skills in a domain, well-connected and organized in many conceptual models. We can then rearrange the conceptual models to fit new scenarios, which are creative solutions. This is most easily seen in the ways that experts solve problems: Issues that seem impossible to non-experts are solved by experts, with elegant and interesting solutions.
• Wisdom — doing the right action at the right time in the right way — comes from having a large set of background knowledge. People who we consider wise have experienced and reflected upon many different situations, which creates the background knowledge; these people can then use their background knowledge to act wisely in a new situation.
• With every new technology, there is a temptation to outsource our background knowledge to the machines. Many math educators were mad about the introduction of calculators, many humanities teachers were mad about the introduction of the ability to search on the internet, and many people (not just educators) are mad about the abilities of AI tools. Even with the power of these tools, they do not change the need for each person to develop their own background knowledge. Having a massive set of background knowledge cannot be replaced by the tools; instead, the background knowledge is enhanced by the tools. Please do not outsource your background knowledge to the machines!

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I’ve created a Model for Learning, which explains and predicts parts of the learning process. Work yourself through the model, remembering specifics for each part and the connections in the model; what are your questions or comments?. For a much deeper explanation on the process of learning, check out this essay: That’s How Learning Works?!?! A Comprehensive Model for Understanding the Learning Process.

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Stories

Here are a couple of stories about the power of background knowledge.

Story 1: I started at a new school this year; the biggest difference between this school and my previous schools is the schedule. My previous schools had a linear schedule: Every lesson for a class happened within a two-day span, while teaching only two different classes. The new school has a rotating schedule, with lessons for a class happening at different times during the week — plus a total of four different classes. Although the schedule change from the previous schools to the new school may sound simple in my description, the schedule change caused me to completely change my thinking. The first couple weeks with the schedule were rough, but I managed to lead decent classes for students; the part that saved the classes for students was my background knowledge of the chemistry and physics. Through a decade of teaching experience I have a deep understanding of the chemistry and physics content plus ways to teach these subjects, which I then applied to the lessons. Without the deep understanding of the content and ways to teach I would have been in major trouble; I would have needed to adjust to the schedule and figure out the content. (This is actually what makes the first couple of years teaching any new subject very challenging.) However, I persevered through the initial stages — with help from some wonderful colleagues! — and am now going smoothly. Reflecting on the experience with the schedule was actually the impetus for this essay because I realized my background knowledge kept me afloat during the challenging times.

Story 2: Many sports use the phrase “slowing down the game.” Usually this phrase is used as athletes make a jump from being good to being great; during this transition, the athlete starts making the spectacular plays look routine and almost-impossible plays become reality. The athlete’s background knowledge and skills have increased to the point where they see the game in slow-motion, acting creatively and wisely in every moment. This phrase extends to other domains, especially those with rapid decision-making: Fighting fires; intervening in dispute; and, teaching students. I’ve been fortunate to have “slowing down the game” as an athlete and teacher, which has created beautiful experiences for myself, my teammates, and my students.

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Questions

1. What is your comfort level with one-to-many relationships?
2. What are domains in which you have a ton of background knowledge?
3. What are domains where you want to have more background knowledge?
4. When has your background knowledge helped you act wisely in a situation?
5. How do you creatively use the background knowledge in your domain?
6. How are you maintaining your background knowledge while using technological tools?
7. How have you experienced “slowing down the game” in your domain?

Learning happens when we share what we are thinking, so I would love to hear your answers! Also, you can use these questions as conversations starters with friends and family — hearing their answers and having a conversation would be great!

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If this newsletter resonated with you, please share on the socials and with someone who you think would also benefit; I would greatly appreciate any help in spreading these ideas!

Thanks for reading this newsletter — and all the best!

Nathan

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