A lot of people complain that they feel stuck in their careers: they feel they're working hard, but they don't seem to move forward in life.

This feeling of being stuck has to do with a small distinction people rarely make when pursuing professional advancement: the difference between knowledge and meta-knowledge.

The main route to meta-knowledge is by doing research. And it involves studying people, more than books or in a particular school.

But avoid simply asking people for advice. When you ask for advice, you’ll often get vague, unhelpful answers. Instead, you need to observe what the peop...