Turn Information into Knowledge (an intermediate user guide)
(mental models and thinking tools)
In part one of Turn Information into Knowledge (a beginner’s guide), I reviewed the need to gain personal experience with information. Gaining experience through experimentation with and manipulating the data, arriving at something of value (knowledge) to you personally.
A Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) system is a carefully crafted database of practical knowledge gathered from (for the most part) the thoughts of others.
Our objective is to find relevant information that we can apply in daily life. We accomplish this by creating mental models or thinking tools.
The Flapjack recipe illustrates the most basic of thinking tools. Each time I prepare Flapjacks for breakfast, I don’t have to recreate my experiments; all I have to do is lay out the ingredients and my pre-written instructions to arrive at a pre-planned outcome.
Let’s dissect two more examples:
1. What We Know
In December 2007, I read a short but fascinating article from Wall Street Journal authors Hoekstra and Harman detailing one of their trips to Iraq: (1)
“On one of our several trips together to Iraq, a senior intelligence official told us how she wrote her assessments — on one page, with three sections: what we know, what we don’t know, and what we think it means.
Sound simple? Actually, it’s very hard.”
The advantage of gathering information from articles and books is that the original author has done (most) of the work for us. However, experimentation, time, and written results are essential in turning information into knowledge.
The four-step Feynman Technique (not discussed here) provides an excellent basis for experimentation through writing, explaining, and refining information into knowledge.
I wrote a 400-word essay on How to Make Decisions with Incomplete Knowledge (3-section format) based on the quote from Hoekstra and Harman before distilling it into a thinking tool I keep as part of my mental models for decision-making.
Divide a piece of paper into three sections.
1st section: What we know:
- Define the problem as it exists today (not yesterday or before attempts to correct it).
2nd section: What we don’t know:
- This is the most challenging section; however, write down ideas and articulate thoughts on why “what we know” is happening. Speculate and chase down rabbit holes to gain as much understanding as possible.
3rd section: What we think it means:
- What action should be taken?
- Take some action and document it, even if the decision is not actionable.
- What opportunities are being created?
2. Setting Objects in a Series
My favorite thinking tool inside my PKM is setting objects in a series. In other words, I identify two notes and connect thoughts to and between them.
I crafted the tool from a comment made by Allen Wilson (pseudoevagrius on the Zettelkasten.de forum) in which: (2)
“The game becomes setting the objects in a series and then tracing the distance between the objects with the least amount of words possible.”
Messrs SkepticMystic and Emile created the Obsidian plugin Graph Analysis to compute beneficial relations between notations. Unfortunately, the software requires a separate note for each parameter. For example, “On (30–10–2021), leaders at (G20) approved a (Global Tax), which will tax businesses 15+%. This was proposed by (Joe Biden), and (Emmanuel Macron) asked the (EU) to follow this example.” The quote requires a separate notation for each bracketed word, clogging my database with seldom-used notations.
In his video discussion of Graph Analysis, Emile (Van Krieken) proposes we can answer the following questions from the above quote:
- What is the news of 30–10–2021?
- Why do I care about Biden/Macron/global tax/G20/EU?
- What is the relationship between Biden and Macron?
- What does Biden/Macron think about global tax?
Emile’s example is good whether using the Graph Analysis plugin or not. Like Wilson, we can utilize any news article or idea and choose two (or more) points to consider. We can set up a series by asking a question and writing about what connects them together.
My thought tool for Setting Objectives in a Series includes examples; however, the basic outline is as follows:
- Capture a thought.
- Write a claim the author is making between two distinct points.
- Create a notation for the claim.
- Attach atomic notes in support, against, illustrations, or metaphors.
I recommend reading Sasha Fast’s article Little Machines in Your Zettelkasten for more examples and additional reading.
Written May 20, 2024
Grammarly provided editorial assistance on this article.
Thanks for Reading!
While coffee may not be my cup of tea, I love beautiful jewelry. If you enjoyed reading my article, I invite you to visit Jewelry Art by Linda, where she lovingly crafts stunning one-of-a-kind pieces by hand.
Part 1: Turn Information into Knowledge (a beginner’s guide).
Part 3: Turn Information into Knowledge (advanced guide).
Footnotes and References
1 Hoekstra, P., & Harman, J. (2007, December 10). “The Limits of Intelligence.” Verified link: September 18, 2020, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119724593112918777
2 Wilson, Allen (pseudoevagrius). (February 16, 2020) “Introduction & Teaching Using Zettelkasten and Paskian Entailment Meshes.” Zettelkasten Forum. Retrieved from: http://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/comment/4211/#Comment_4211
