True Knowledge is what we need, not Chauffeur Knowledge

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Since I just quit my full-time job and I am having my summer holiday now, I bought some books about investment and self-improvement. I am currently reading a book called "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Rolf Dobelli which is about errors in thinking. I find that one of the errors is relevant to the content creation and I want to share with you. It is called "Chauffeur Knowledge".

Before explaining what Chauffeur Knowledge is, let me share you with a relevant story from the book first.

"After receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918, Max Planck went on tour across Germany. Wherever he was invited, he delivered the same lecture on new quantum mechanics.

Over time, his chauffeur grew to know it by heart: “It has to be boring giving the same speech each time, Professor Planck. How about I do it for you in Munich? You can sit in the front row and wear my chauffeur’s cap. That’d give us both a bit of variety.” Planck liked the idea, so that evening the driver held a long lecture on quantum mechanics in front of a distinguished audience.

Later, a physics professor stood up with a question. The driver recoiled: “Never would I have thought that someone from such an advanced city as Munich would ask such a simple question! My chauffeur” "

So, this is Chauffeur Knowledge, which is "knowledge from people who have learned to put on a show" (Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly).

Why does it matter? Although I'm new to affiliate marketing and its content creation, I still think that the content we created should not be based on Chauffeur Knowledge. We should not create content that is not entirely true so as to show off or earn some more money. Because it's not ethical.

Instead, it should be based on True Knowledge which is about doing our research seriously to understand topics we're writing and thus become an expert our niche. So, when people read our content, they learn something new. They can also make an educated and informed decision to buy a particular product or not.

Although it's sometimes difficult to judge what their differences are, there is one way to determine it. The difference between True Knowledge and Chauffeur Knowledge is that people with True Knowledge will admit it if they don't know nor understand something. So, in my opinion, if we don't know the topic that we're writing, we should either do more research to educate ourselves or simply admit it and thus don't write about it.

I think this is closely connected with Kyle's lesson -- always do more research, so many of you may already know about this. The reason why I want to share this is I want to remind this to myself and others who are also new to affiliate marketing. It's very tempting to make up some content that's not completely true to earn more. This may earn us some money in a short term but it won't last long. Because we will lose respect from the others.

I would love to know your thoughts about this. If you do, feel free to leave some comments below. Thank you for reading my long post! Have a nice day!

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Recent Comments

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Thanks for sharing :)

You're welcome!

Hi I agree the importance of researching and understanding your subject and also the needs of the audience you are going to be writing for, is the key to successful marketing.

It does take a lot of work as many people on here will vouch for, especially if you want a longer term business. But once you have that knowledge you will automatically be so far ahead of everyone else, because that is the step most of your competitors won't bother to pursue.

Hi, thank you for your insight! Originally I didn't though that it takes so much time and work to start my affiliate marketing. So at first, I wasn't used to it. But, when I understand the importance of doing research and understanding the needs of my audience, I start to put more time and effort on it. I think this is a valuable experience for me.

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