Ready for Anything, Part 1: Pack Some Knowledge

Whether you want to take on an epic journey or just run a successful staff meeting, you can learn something about preparation from Lewis and Clark.  Throughout the month of May, the anniversary of their launch in 1804, we will be looking at their expedition and takeaways we can use to be "Ready for Anything."  We begin this week with the importance of learning.

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We can study data, run projections, even do computer modeling, but no one knows the future.  (We often really don't even know the past all that well, but that's a topic for another column.)

When the future is uncertain, the best we can do is to follow the scouting motto and "Be prepared."

In American history, there is perhaps no better example of preparing, of getting ready for anything, than that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who launched, led, and recorded an epic expedition across the West from May 1804 to September 1806.

The new nation had just doubled its size with the acquisition of 828,000 square miles, a monumental land grab that came to be known as the Louisiana Purchase.  Now President Thomas Jefferson wanted to know what was out there.  The land was occupied by numerous tribes, and white fur traders had traversed some of it, but, to Americans in the East, much of it was a giant blank.  Indeed, a map of the area nicely captures Americans' ignorance of their new acquisition: between some charted waterways and such around the Mississippi River and the Pacific coast is, well, virtually nothing — a largely blank canvas, so to speak.

An early map of the United States of North America by Aaron Arrowsmith, Cartographer.

Was there a "Northwest Passage" — that is, a waterway that would greatly facilitate transportation of goods before the invention of the steam locomotive?  What kind of terrain was out there?  Along with such questions about geography came questions about the plants, animals, and people.  Jefferson wanted to know it all.  He was a naturally curious man — an amateur scientist and inventor, in fact — but there were practical considerations, as well.  Jefferson knew the value of knowledge for material prosperity — for commerce, for example.

The Right Person for the Job

An expedition would be a first step in collecting such information, but whom should he send?  He said he sought someone "perfectly skilled in botany, natural history, mineralogy, astronomy, with at the same time the necessary firmness of body & mind, habits of living in the woods & familiarity with the Indian character."  That's a little like trying to find a decathlete who could write scientific treatises in iambic pentameter.  It's a very small, perhaps nonexistent pool.  In the end, he settled for someone he knew: his personal secretary, a guy by the name of Meriwether Lewis.

Lewis and Clark scholar Gary Moulton explains:

"He knew that no such person existed, but that Lewis filled the latter requirements perfectly and could be sufficiently trained in the former to carry out such duties in the field.  With that in mind he sent Lewis to study in Philadelphia with some of the leading scientists of the young republic."

These were the days before MasterClass.  Instead of logging on and watching videos, Lewis traveled to Philadelphia, where he studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush, astronomer Andrew Ellicott, zoologist Caspar Wistar, and botanist Benjamin Smith Barton.  (It pays to have contacts such as Thomas Jefferson.)

Dos and Don'ts of Learning

What can we take away from Lewis's learning experience and apply to our own preparations?  Let's note both what Lewis did do and what he did not do. 

1. He did spend time learning directly from leading experts.

2. He did not google "celestial navigation" and try to absorb whatever he could find and digest in a few weeks (or a few minutes).

OK, Lewis did not have internet access, even before he went into the dead zone of the Great Plains, but we do, and let's be honest, sometimes we are very tempted to take the shortcuts available to us on the information highway.

Here's the thing, though: consulting experts is the real shortcut if you are seeking thorough, credible information, the kind that will make you a household name in American history — or just help you move ahead in your career and relationships.  As a researcher myself, as well as a longtime professor who taught research in the classroom and co-authored a textbook on information literacy, I am very familiar with the process of retrieving information — in books and articles, on the web, and from experts.  There are two distinctive advantages to consulting experts early in your learning process. 

The Benefits of Consulting Experts

First, to put it simply, they know what they are talking about, having studied their subjects for years and earned a reputation for credibility through their education and/or experience.  There are plenty of people happy to share their insights and so-called "facts," but anyone can say anything.  Would you invite just anyone into your home to repair your wiring, or would you insist on a trained electrician?  If Lewis had taken his medical training from the first person he bumped into at the tavern, we might be talking about the Clark expedition.

The second advantage is less obvious.  If you have ever googled a subject, such as "Lewis & Clark," you may have noticed that you find a mishmash of information: miscellaneous details about the men and the expedition, a college, even a Lewis & Clark board game.  (This is literally some of what I found when I ran this search.) It can be difficult to navigate (so to speak) this vast terrain of information.  Even if it's all credible (an unlikely scenario), you probably don't know what's important, and you don't know what you don't know.  An expert can provide a broad view before you get down into the weeds — or, in the case of the Lewis & Clark expedition, the prickly pear cactus.  Best of all, you can ask questions for clarification.

Success!

The learning method that Lewis used paid off beautifully, perhaps even better than Jefferson could have hoped.  Lewis and Clark not only survived their expedition, but also completed some impressive scientific work — remarkable work, really, when we consider that they did this work out in the open air with rudimentary instruments in the midst of an often harrowing journey, packed with hardships and disasters.  They used astronomy for celestial navigation, documented 178 new plant species and 122 new animal species, collected numerous specimens, and even noted anthropological details of tribes they encountered.  Neither one of them started as an astronomer, botanist, or zoologist, but learned enough to figure out where they were and to advance the knowledge of the American West in dramatic ways.

Next week, we will look at another essential quality that Lewis and Clark brought to their expedition: resilience.  For now, I encourage you to consider ways you can expand your own knowledge to improve your life and your world.