Tacit and Explicit Knowledge
Tacit knowledge is book knowledge, information we can memorize. It consists of information we can pass along in a lecture. It’s the facts and figures that constitute the intellectual retention of data. Contrast this with implicit knowledge, with wisdom. Tacit knowledge can be taught, yet it’s not possible to teach someone to be wise. Insights dawn
... See moreAmy Wright Glenn • Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go
Scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi has argued that every individual act of human knowing works on two levels—“focal awareness,” in which the knower gives direct attention to an observed object, and “subsidiary awareness,” in which the knower employs a host of assumptions that are tacit and not recognized as we use them.20 Polanyi shows that
... See moreTimothy Keller • Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World
Before video became available at scale, tacit knowledge had to be transmitted in person, so that the learner could closely observe the knowledge in action and learn in real time — skilled metalworking, for example, is impossible to teach from a textbook. Because of this intensely local nature, it presents a uniquely strong succession problem: if a ... See more
Samo Burja • The YouTube Revolution in Knowledge Transfer
More complex forms of isolating mechanisms include reputations, commercial and social relationships, network effects,* dramatic economies of scale, and tacit knowledge and skill gained through experience.