Besides being hierarchical, the figure is pyramidal, in that data are plentiful whereas wisdom is limited and even almost nonexistent. While the understanding increases from data to wisdom, the context decreases. While the three underlying concepts of this hierarchy are related to the past, the fourth
and top concept, which is wisdom, is relevant to the future, and it is essence of philosophical probing.

If data is characterized as recorded facts, then information is the set of patterns, or expectations underlying the data. Knowledge can be described as the accumulation of the set of expectations and wisdom as the value attached to knowledge.