Hey - a guy is allowed a bonus vanity answer once in a while. Especially while most of the other guys are taking very well earned breaks with their families, loved ones, or mirrors.

I could tell you of my time in Tibet, searching for enlightenment. My time deep in the jungles of the Amazon. But no. You deserve the truth.

There are three legs of the tripod of wisdom.

The first leg is simply experience. Try things. Do things. Live things. Life is a swimming pool, so jump in at the deep end. Have a personal interest in as many things that life can give you as possible. Try everything that comes your way, and hunt out the things that don't. And remember it all.

The second leg is knowledge. Knowing the good and evil, the triumphs and failures, the pettiness and the glory of people. You get that by watching and listening, reading and thinking, but rarely by speaking. Accept all and judge nothing. And by knowing yourself. For you are a microcosm of all humanity.

The third leg of the tripod is empathy. The tough one. Remembering experiences and being able to empathise with the other point of view ,to the point you actually get yourself inside the mind of others. The bit that can, and frequently does, wake you, desperately trying not to scream, at 3 am.

So there is your tripod. It sits there, proud, bold and completely, totally, utterly useless, until you add the last component, the pinacle and binder that holds it all together.

Love. If you can't feel a connection to the question, or the questioner, the tripod collapses. Becomes a useless pile of twigs, to be swept away as trash.

That really didn't help much - did it. Maybe you should try a year in Tibet.