Society loves to classify. Top and bottom, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, insider and outsider. These labels create order, or at least the illusion of it. But the reality is more complicated. Everyone has a daily rhythm, a set of skills, a way of navigating the world that is invisible from the outside. Classification tells one story, everyday life tells another.

The differences are often subtle: how people move, what they carry, the utensils they use, the routines they follow. A person labeled “less capable” may have navigated danger, scarcity, or complex social systems for years, developing a wealth of experience that is invisible to those above in the hierarchy. Millions of experiences exist in the world, and sometimes they overlap with what the supposedly “higher” classes know, sometimes they don’t. What is often missed is that skill, knowledge, and ingenuity do not always correlate with status.

Classifying people from above carries risks. It can lead to underestimating someone, assuming they cannot handle responsibility or understand complexity. It can create barriers where none are needed, and limit opportunities before the person even has the chance to show what they can do. Meanwhile, in the quiet routines of everyday life, people adapt, improvise, and excel in ways that are invisible to those with the labels.

Transport, eating habits, clothing, or speech may differ, and these differences are easy to see, easy to judge. But underneath them is a daily practice of life, a form of intelligence shaped by circumstance, observation, and experience. When society only sees the labels, it misses the substance. It misses what people have survived, what they can teach, and what they can achieve if given trust and space.

In every street, every home, every workplace, there is knowledge that defies classification. Some of it mirrors what others have learned; some of it is entirely unique. To truly understand someone, one must look beyond hierarchy, beyond the surface, beyond assumptions. Only then does the difference between “above” and “below” shrink, revealing the real expertise embedded in everyday life.