The Fascinating Story of Planck Wissen

I was recently walking alongside my colleague on our way to a local shop, when the topic of the conversation turned to my essays. My colleague mentioned that my work (the overarching concept of how I approach my writing — learning and sharing what I learn) reminded him of “Planck Wissen”. You see, the word “Wissen” in the German language means knowledge.

I could tell that Planck Wissen is knowledge that is somehow associated with Max Planck, the famous German theoretical physicist. But I did not have more insight into it.

When I told my colleague that I did not know what Planck Wissen meant, he was genuinely surprised, almost as if he expected someone like me to know all about it. Nonetheless, he happily narrated the story of how Planck Wissen came to be a thing.

It turned out to be one of the more intriguing stories I have heard in a while and I thought I would share it in an essay. So, here we are.

Who is Max Planck?

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in 1858 into a family of academics and intellectuals. He had a talent for mathematics and music and received early training in astronomy, mechanics, and mathematics.

He could also sing and play multiple musical instruments, and even composed operas. At some point, he chose to pursue theoretical physics (against the advice of his early mentors) and went on to become one of the founding members of modern physics.

He postulated the now famous Planck constant which serves as part of the basis for the field of quantum mechanics. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for his discovery of quanta. The period immediately after his Nobel Prize is of specific interest to us in this essay.

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The Story of Chauffeur Wissen

You might be wondering why we have shifted our focus to a new term called Chauffeur Wissen instead of Planck Wissen. Rest assured that as the story progresses, it will all make sense.

Immediately after his Nobel Prize in 1918, Max Planck travelled around Germany for several weeks giving lectures and sharing his knowledge to academics, intellectuals and students in several universities. Throughout this time, he was driven around by a Chauffeur.

When the lectures were happening, Planck’s Chauffeur attended them as well. After a week of driving Planck around the country, the Chauffeur grew tired of listening to the same lectures. Furthermore, he had heard the same lecture so often that he had it memorized by the word. So, to spice things up, he proposed a funny idea to Planck.

“It must be very boring for you to present the same lecture over and over, Professor Planck.

What if we switched roles in Munich, where you would play the role of the Chauffeur and I would present the lecture as Professor Planck?”

Planck saw the humour in the proposal and agreed to play along. When the time came, the Chauffeur presented the lecture on quantum mechanics flawlessly from memory. Things were going as planned. However, post the lecture, a member of the audience stood up and asked a tricky technical question to the Chauffeur (who was pretending to be Planck).

The Chauffeur did not have a clue. Instead of buckling under pressure, he came up with a witty answer:

“Who would have thought that in a city so advanced as Munich such a basic question would be posed after my lecture?

This topic is so basic that even my Chauffeur would be able to answer it. I would now like to request my Chauffeur to respond.”

And that’s how the story goes. To be frank, I don’t know if this story actually happened. To make matters trickier, there seem to be multiple versions of the story floating around. In the original version that my colleague narrated, the audience member who asked the tricky technical question was Planck himself.

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Regardless of whichever version we consider, I find the core of the story intriguing. It seems to differentiate between two types of knowledge:

1. Planck Wissen — Deep knowledge that is earned and owned.

2. Chauffeur Wissen — Shallow knowledge that is borrowed and fleeting.

What do these two types of knowledge mean for our day-to-day lives?

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Planck Wissen in Daily Life

We live in the age of internet virality, podcasts, and the like. There is a tremendous volume of information flowing into our brains as long as we are connected and consuming. We often have opinions on a broad spectrum of topics based on what we consume via social media, podcasts, etc.

More often than not, a lot of this is shallow knowledge in the form of Chauffeur Wissen. Our brains trick us nicely into thinking that it is “our” knowledge, whereas, in reality, it is just borrowed knowledge (which could range from Chauffeur Wissen to downright misinformation).

On the contrary, we have deep knowledge about certain topics based on our life experiences and original research. This would correspond to Planck Wissen. If someone asks you a question on a topic/area where you have Planck Wissen, you are highly likely to go in-depth and thorough in your answer.

You are also highly likely to answer a series of “whys” related to an area where you have Planck Wissen. But in the case of Chauffeur Wissen, you are likely to be stumped by a series of “whys”.

A fairly reasonable thumb rule that I have found useful to differentiate between Planck Wissen and Chauffeur Wissen is to look for the motivation behind a referral.

For instance, let us say that someone claims to be an expert on a topic. After being presented with a series of sequential “whys”, if the person answers along the following lines, they are more likely to have Chauffeur Wissen:

“It seems you wish to have a deep understanding of the topic. In that case, you should read this journal / book / listen to this podcast.”

What is going on with such an answer is that they are deflecting the burden of proof or proper explanation to the source of their Chauffeur Wissen. Now, in certain circumstances, references are genuine, but the motivation in such cases must be to enhance/supplement the answer provided by the person and not to completely replace it.

Other than that, it is generally not easy to tell Chauffeur Wissen and Planck Wissen apart. Personally, I struggle with it daily. Take my essays for example. I do my best to verify/confirm/calculate all of my findings and information, but still, I often feel like an impostor.

Feedback/questions from readers (in the form of comments) often give me more insight into what kind of knowledge I possess (in hindsight!). But I do realise that not everyone has this luxury. But one could ask oneself a series of “whys” on any topic and use one’s own internal compass. That is always an option.

With that, I conclude this essay and hope that you found it informational or entertaining or perhaps both.

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Further reading that might interest you: 

• How To Benefit From Curves Of Constant Width?
• How Big Airships Are Making A Comeback
• How To Actually Solve The Bouncing Ball Puzzle?

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