Chauffeur knowledge versus true knowledge

Charlie Munger shared a humorous story at the USC Law School Commencement in 2007, which goes as follows:

I frequently tell the apocryphal story about how Max Planck, after he won the Nobel Prize, went around Germany giving the same standard lecture on the new quantum mechanics.

Over time, his chauffeur memorized the lecture and said, “Would you mind, Professor Planck, because it’s so boring to stay in our routine. [What if] I gave the lecture in Munich and you just sat in front wearing my chauffeur’s hat?” Planck said, “Why not?” And the chauffeur got up and gave this long lecture on quantum mechanics. After which a physics professor stood up and asked a perfectly ghastly question. The speaker said, “Well I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”

The story is funny, but also shares a solid point — the chauffeur doesn’t really understand what he’s talking about. Certainly spending that much time around Planck would be very beneficial, but he’s still never really studied what’s behind the main speech.

Charlie explains the difference between the two types of knowledge in his book “ Poor Charlie’s Almanack “:

In this world, I think we have two kinds of knowledge. One is Max Planck knowledge…