Knowledge
- What distinguishes knowledge from information? Knowledge is information upon which I can act. Knowledge has action associated with it; we can do something with it.
- First, we must recognize that information I can act on is dependent on my having some context or experience with that information. That is, I have to already know some things that complement the information to make it actionable.
- What is knowledge to me might not be knowledge to you. Knowledge is not an absolute!
- What we have in our "knowledge base" is really only potential knowledge because the usefulness of that information depends on the context, experience, and need of the person looking at it. Information becomes knowledge in the moment of use.
- We gain knowledge through interaction and experience.
Why this matters for a second brain
- if information only becomes knowledge in the moment of use, then a Second Brain is not a store of knowledge but a store of potential knowledge - its value is decided at retrieval, not at capture
- the same ladder shows up in research: data -> findings -> insights, where insights are the actionable rung
- interaction and experience being the source of knowledge is why Design research and Interviews beat desk study for understanding people