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Subject:RE: Knowledge is manufactured? From:Gause_Brian -at- emc -dot- com To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 3 Aug 2007 15:53:18 -0400
I have to jump in here because this just doesn't make sense (and it is
Friday, so let's have some fun!). You've said:
"You can acquire and transmit facts, but not knowledge."
One of Merriam-Webster's entries for knowledge is "the sum of what is
known". Surely you can pass on the sum of what you have learned about a
software package, and it's legitimate to call this passing on
"knowledge".
I like this distinction between information and knowledge: "information"
applies to a state or property of a thing (which can be something
without a physical shape, such as a rumor or a thought) out there in the
real world. "Knowledge" applies to the sum of conclusions and thought
experiments in my head...thus knowledge is the result of analysing
reality and making conclusions about this perception. I can have
knowledge of information...for example, I know your car was stolen. I
can also have information about knowledge...for example, I heard a rumor
you caught the thief. You'll see that this pivots on the distinction
between "thinking something is true" and "knowing something is true".
Knowledge is a direct result of perceptual analysis and judgement, which
doesn't necessarily follow with "information".
Information is often an out-of-context thought or fact, sometimes just a
rumor. Knowledge is the result of work in your brain, and is most often
based on reason and evidence. Specifically, knowledge is the result of
analyzing information and making conscious judgments about this or that
property of "information" as "true/false", "influential/useless" and the
like. This implies that "knowledge" meets a higher threshold of
understanding than "information", which makes sense when you consider
how these words are often used (and how knowledge is generated).
More specifically, "information" is a building block of "knowledge",
which is the result of conscious analysis. And both can be transmitted
as information...All talk generates information. It is only with the
mental work in your head that you create knowledge.
Both of these words are nonsense in the context of my title, though. My
expertise transcends this distinction between information and knowledge.
I am a writer.
Brian Gause
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 12:01 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Knowledge is manufactured?
Philosophically (after all, it is Friday), I think the idea behind
"knowledge is manufactured" is the distinction between facts and
comprehending and understanding those facts and how to
use them successfully, which is "knowledge." You can acquire
and transmit facts, but not knowledge, because the comprehension
and understanding must be recreated in the mind of each
individual who receives the facts; all you can do is provide
facts and the necessary tools to enable others to "remanufacture"
knowledge within themselves.
> WADR to Bear's cool Zen approach, tech writers don't manufacture
> knowledge. We acquire it and (if we're lucky) transmit it to other
> people. </nitpick>
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