In his 2011 book What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly explains how knowledge is as much about gathering facts as it is about finding good explanations to link them.
Each epistemic invention expands the web of verifiable facts and links one bit of knowledge to another. Knowledge is thus a network phenomenon, with each fact a node. We say knowledge increases not only when the number of facts increases, but also, and more so, when the number and strength of relationships between facts increases.
It is that relatedness that gives knowledge its power.
A knowledge network is more than the sum of its parts. The paths that connect individual nodes can reveal unexpected insights and the wisdom to pursue them.
It’s because of the networked nature of knowledge that organizations revolving around a writing culture have a better shot at being effective and why it pays to leave context breadcrumbs and write everything twice.
Open graph image credits: Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash