Charlie Munger, the former vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway, turned 99 on Jan. 1 this year — a New Year’s baby who’s spent his life reading, learning, teaching and, most of all, giving back.

Even as he’s aged, Munger’s growth mindset hasn’t slowed. He aims to improve his intellect the moment he wakes up — believing that acquiring wisdom is a moral and practical duty.

“And there’s a corollary to that proposition which is very important. It means that you’re hooked for lifetime learning, and without lifetime learning you people are not going to do very well,” he said in his 2007 USC commencement address.

“You are not going to get very far in life based on what you already know. You’re going to advance in life by what you’re going to learn after you leave here… if civilization can progress only when it invents the method of invention, you can progress only when you learn the method of learning.”

The chart above, provided by @gapingvoid, shows us the process of collecting data, sorting the data into information, then using that information as knowledge.

This three-step process hasn’t changed, even though the way we have collected data, from cave art to the first written texts, has.

The act of writing was invented in 3200 BC in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). It emerged from counting and accounting and was invented to cater to the need to deal with greater chunks of data. Even today, writing is the primary means of human interaction with information.

Because we have abundant information at our fingertips, we can fall victim to information overload. We often spend more time collecting and not enough time sorting.

We need to follow famed investor Naval Ravikant's method of connecting information to knowledge.

Ravikant believes: “Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your inner talents your genuine curiosity and passions. Specific knowledge is at the edge of knowledge—the stuff that is hard to understand. If you’re not 100 percent into it, someone else is then they will outperform you. And they won’t outperform you by a little, they will outperform you by a lot.”

To connect the dots of turning data into knowledge, those who understand their passions and their skillset understand what to ignore.

Munger is correct; we must be lifelong learners.

But we first must understand what information is only information and what needs to become embedded as knowledge in our brains.

The Daily Coach is Expanding!

We’re growing The Daily Coach this year — and we need your help. Over the coming months, we’re going to send occasional surveys, previews and early access invites to gather your feedback on how we can better serve you, the leader.

If you want to be one of the first to receive new Daily Coach content from Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Fame Coach George Raveling, three-time Super Bowl-winning NFL executive Michael Lombardi, and the rest of our team, please begin by completing the five-question survey below:

Which of the following industries best describes your line of work? (1/5)