Hungarian-British philosopher Michael Polanyi is known for the concept of tacit knowledge. In simple terms, tacit knowledge refers to the data we gather by being “there”. It is the knowledge we acquire through life and learning experiences, it is often hard to document and/or explain. Even when we are not consciously and actively learning, we are still learning. Another term for tacit knowledge might be implicit knowledge. Even in a blunt refusal of learning, we are in fact learning. The fact that we are in environments in which information (any type of information) is constantly shared or exchanged, we learn. We are blissfully unaware of this continuous learning process and even fight it. A very effective method to assess how much we really know, is to try to teach it. Teaching others can reveal gaps in what we think we know, but can also reveal knowledge we have picked up without realizing.
For instance, a cultural group will share a number of identifiers. These identifiers are second nature to the group and might go unnoticed. We might be chronically and perpetually late for every activity as a cultural marker and blissfully unaware of how annoying that can be for others. That is, until a member of the cultural group steps out and tries to be part of another cultural group. In this process he/she will become aware of both the previous annoying practice and identify newer and contrasting cultural identifiers. Thus, the tacit knowledge we had or have becomes a realization of what is known thus far.
Some Sundays ago, Billy Oppenheimer’s newsletter discussed whether we can know every thing there is to know about everything. Most of us would agree that we can’t learn every thing there is to know about everything. When I think of knowledge and every thing there is to know about everything, I think of an ocean of unreachable depth. An ocean whose depths, no matter what tools and skills we acquire, will always remain out of reach. But, we keep trying to reach the bottom because try we must. Education to me is that ocean. And I love the ocean.
Academia and higher education are also like the ocean to me. Sadly it is often the target of criticism on almost every area. For instance, tuition, facilities, textbooks, food, recreation, and so on. Currently, colleges are experiencing unprecedented closures at an alarming speed. A simple Google search will return a healthy list of reports in the news. Several sources cite academia’s golden era being from 1940s to 1970s and mark the beginning of its decline right after those decades. Yet, academia, in spite of this storm, is the ideal place to learn, discuss, and analyze. Students have at their disposal an entire engine comprised of professors, tutors, recreational and sport outlets, social activities, and libraries, committed to one thing: student learning.
Tuition costs soar, that is a reality. When I went to college in the 80s a credit was $15.00. And the year I started college there were riots because the tuition was too high compared to the $5.00 per credit the previous year. It seems laughable today. While it is true that education, especially in the US is expensive, and too expensive for many, I contend that part of the reason for academia’s decline is that we have lost our love for knowledge.
Yet, as a generation, our access to knowledge is unparalleled. Libraries and universities are not the only gateways to knowledge any more. There are online learning platforms from YouTube, Domestika, Skillshare, Masterclass, and more. Not to mention the independently owned platforms through Teachable, for instance. Many charge a hefty amount for lessons. And there is also social media. Social media is another place where profesionales share in byte sized quantities their expertise and knowledge, often as a hook for a more comprehensive catalog of knowledge.
But, as with many areas of knowledge, our increasing reliance in technology has quenched our curious thirst for knowledge and understanding. Between all of the above mentioned outlets and our ability to thumb type a search on any browser, our love to own knowledge has dissipated. We want knowledge to be already digested, interpreted, and applied. What we now understand as knowledge is actually its application by another person and a demo where our own experiential learning is minimized. In short, we do not want friction.
Yet, it is the entire spectrum of the learning process what allows us to own knowledge to the point of making it implicit— tacit, second nature. Learning requires a partnership and a collaboration. It needs a teacher, tools in the form of reading, writing, drawing (yes, old fashion simple drawing), and application so that the lessons are assimilated in our own intellectual processes and they become part of us.
A recurrent question in my design classes is what is the most important skill or skills for a designer to be hired? I often offer two replies: your mind and your sketches and they are both related to each other. Usually students expect and often want an answer in the form of x program, or how to do y and z. But that is not it. At the risk of sounding like an absolutist, software and/or how to’s mastery have never been it. In my book Sketching as Design Thinking I talk about how vital it is for a designer to sketch. Debbie Millman, former AIGA President, founder of SVA, designer, writer, and podcaster answered the same question to one of students when we met her on September 26, 2014. Ms. Millman replied without a second thought: sketching. I wrote about this experience in an article titled Sketching and the Mindful Designer.
The type of learning we acquire through the hand movements while sketching become part of that tacit and intuitive knowledge. We grow in it as we continue to practice it. At this point in my career, I can predict with a close certainty how shapes will interact with each other in a visual exploration. But, I was not born with that knowledge. While it is now intuitive and second nature to me, it was acquired through practice, and it translates to that unique edge each of us brings to the table.
How else do we differentiate ourselves from others? Take doctors in the same area for instance. Two surgeons may perform a particular surgery very different to each other because each one has unique perspectives based on their intuition, implicit and tacit knowledge of the how to’s. I can actually assert this is true since I had to have a repeat surgery in the space of five years by different doctors.
There is value in the practice. The practice however, needs to be informed with principles to guide the practice. Otherwise, our day to day will become repetitive, monotonous, and mundane. But because we need theory, we need reasons, we need motivation, our minds crave more. Our minds feel compelled to create, to take the pieces of what we know, the other pieces from the how to’s, and what we feed our minds with, to combine them in new ways to create something.
One of our students during the study abroad trip was highly curious. His mind was constantly leading him to ask questions and engage in profound conversations. At first we were just following along with his curiosity. After all, he seemed to actively nurture his love of learning. While on the trip, he took it upon himself to visit almost every church not only because of his faith but also because of the architecture. When we went to Venice, we engaged in a rich conversation while looking at the abstract work of William De Kooning. He wanted to understand its value. His desire to know about abstraction exemplified the love of learning and the love of knowledge. He was not a fan and yet he wanted to acquire tools to understand it. It turns out that he might become an art historian after our trip. His love of learning lead him and those experiences will now be part of his implicit knowledge.
It is true that there will never be enough years in our lives to learn every thing that there is to learn about everything. It is also true that not every thing about everything will be easy to learn. In fact it will be squirrelly quite often. These last weeks I have been struggling intellectually with a particular method in watercolor painting. I understand it. Its application always betrays me. Yet, I want to keep trying until it becomes tacit knowledge for me.
Love,
Alma