Some Tips From My Personal Knowledge System In Notion

My First Attempt At Information Organization

I had written this brainstorm session inside my blog, but I figured it would do better polished and packaged here. Here is the guideline I made for my knowledge management inside Notion. I touch on reasons why such a system is in demand and the potential building blocks of my system.

Firstly, I have strong opinions about personal knowledge systems. I don’t subscribe to a blanket approach. Everyone’s learning goals and motivations for utilizing information vary. I ordinarily like to keep my tasks, objectives, and goals clear and to minimize them any chance I get. However, my approach to this system is a bit more complex due to my ambitious indexing plans. I want to separate the sources of information especially (ie. podcasts, books, articles, conversations, etc.), and I’m not going to use a “master database.” Instead, I will use a concept cloud (or tag wall) to connect all of my databases.

I’d like to use this as a means of indexing information, connecting ideas, writing quick notes, and creating something like a library to query when I write content in the future. My primary goal is to expand my content creation into different fields. And so, not only do I want my facts straight and my sources in order, but I also want to write quicker and get more out there on the web with confidence.

Information, Data & Knowledge

Although they are connected, knowledge is not data nor information. We gain knowledge due to an understanding of both terms. As well, information, data, and knowledge are not interchangeable.

• ✅ Success stems from understanding what degree of necessity each concept holds, understanding what the user already has, and also what is not needed of each concept.

1. Knowledge = Insights and wisdom (input)

2. Resolve and Action utilizes knowledge (output)

Data Defined

Strictly objective facts, both quantitative and qualitative queries rely on data — the raw material that is essential for information.

• Quantitative: Queries to evaluate the cost, speed, velocity, capacity, weight, etc.

• Qualitative: Queries to evaluate relevance, substance, and clarity.

Information Defined

Information contains both input and output activities. 📞 It is a form of communication that sends a message from a sender to a receiver. The origin of the word "inform" is to give shape to. When shape is given to data—when it is understood, connected and evaluated.

• 🛑 Information can be acknowledged as such by the sender but not by the receiver. The receiver may find the message difficult to understand or not engaging. Is it only information when it truly informs?

  • information that is not informative is generally due to excessive "📢 noise" in the message.

• Data becomes information when the sender adds understandable meaning or purpose.

Ways To Transfer Data Into Information

1. Contextualize → What is the purpose of the data? [Human]

2. Categorize → What are the key components of the data? [Human]

3. Calculate → Can the data be analyzed mathematically? [Computer]

4. Correct → Remove errors from data. [Human, Computer]

5. Condense → Summarize data. [Human]

Knowledge Defined

📖 Knowledge is a mix of experience, values, and insights (contextual information). 🏃 Knowledge is information in action. It is not easy to pin down. It is not as concrete as data. As well, it can be both formally structured and fluid (intuitive).

• Data → Information → Knowledge. Data and information can be extracted and manipulated by computing. Knowledge is entirely in the hands of humans.

The Transformation Of Information Into Knowledge

1. Comparison → Compare information with personal experience

2. Consequence → Implications information has on decision making

3. Connection → Relate information to one another

4. Conversation → Find what others feel about the information

Why Knowledge Management?

• Also known as (PKM) → those who spend most of their lives in the 21st century will face a screen of infinite information—no instrument in human history more significant to growth. (More than 547200 new websites created each day)

  • Broad Demand → humans desire to consolidate mass information into long-term PKM. A desire for intellectual growth by those inside and outside of institutions and/or corporate life.

    • Transform pieces of information on the internet or otherwise into a personal textbook or wiki of sorts.

  • Cause → 🙅🏽 the anti-truth movement, fake news, lack of trust in once trustworthy sources (whether justified or not). A general worry that truth is getting away from the people. A need for personal control over information ... still, however, through the lens of the user's values, beliefs, and worldview. 

    • New-age information degrades truth in the long term due to redundancy and noise.

    • 👁️‍🗨️ Some desire more objectivity—some desire more subjectivity. Some want objective information from those who align with their values.

• 📖 Books, articles, journals, webpages, etc. change so rapidly and with such uncertainty, if compared to a static library, one cannot approach new-age information in the same manner.

When To Use A PKM

• Creating Information

• Researching Information

• Evaluating/Assessing Information

• Organizing/Storing Information

• Cataloging/Classifying/Indexing Information

• Information Retrieval from Personal Memory

What To Put Inside A PKM

• 💁 Information from sources

• 🔖 A place to bookmark sources for later input

• ⭐️ OPTIONAL (Task Management)

General PKM Strategy To-Do

• [ ] Develop a mental model/mental map in regards to approaching new information

• [ ] Create a structure to break down information in digestible chunks and relate those chunks to one another.

  • Structure must enhance mental model.

  • Structure must encourage development of new skills.

  • Structure must aid problem-solving and decision making.

  • Structure must provide flexibility for updating information.

  • Structure must be easy to navigate.

• [x] Find a digital tool that best suits your mental model.

A Shift In Responsibility

• ⚒️ Technology has been used in history primarily to shape a vast emptiness or uninhabited environment.

  • Uncertainty, the unknown, lack of control. Especially after 🦠 COVID-19, humans are faced with a new reality and a new appreciation of the importance of truth. The politicization of a deadly disease that can be mitigated only by truth has sent us into such a global divide that a need for control is immense.

• A shift in responsibility → who is responsible for truth? Who is to blame when misinformation is spread? Can any one person be held accountable?

  • The creator and the consumer.

    • The consumer is responsible for where they find their sources and how they interpret information. ⚖️ The consumer is now the judge and jury. Due to the overabundance of information and lack of “truth,” they determine who is most worthy to spread information to the community.

    • The creator is held accountable, that is if the creator can be determined. And even if the creator is found, 🏛️ politics have certainly entered the equation, and/or old institutions defend (seemingly) guilty persons, highlighting a societal unbalance between high and low powers. Accountability is near impossible for those with substantial power or notability → surge of unrest.

      • Unrest develops in the form of 🙅🏻‍♂️ cancel culture, which is equivalent to self-policing.

        • Cause: a society with no trustworthy leader and a lack of order thereof.

• Gain control through enlightenment. More knowledge = more control.

The Knowledge Funnel

1. Begin with novel data → find new data

   • What is novel data? not easily understood or difficult to categorize.

2. Add context to data → compare data

   • Find multiple ways to look at the data, including opinions.

3. Add Understanding → transform data into information

4. Add Judgement → transform information into knowledge

5. Recycle → distribute knowledge

Knowledge Management Principles

Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

Categorize system by these two types of knowledge:

🙇🏽 Subjective Knowledge

• Insights

• Intuitions

• Experiences

• Personal

• Emotions

ℹ️ Objective Knowledge

• Systematic

• Rational

• Easily Communicated

• Hard data

• Universal Principles

Transfer OF Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

• ⋈ Tacit to Tacit - “socialization,” apprenticeship, mentoring, collegial relations, or “learning by doing.”

• ⧒ Tacit to Explicit - “externalization,” articulation, written or communicated in a permanent or semi-permanent fashion. (ie. stories, narratives, conversations, and presentations)

• ⧓ Explicit to Explicit - also called “combination.” A systematic procedure inside a database.

• ⧑ Explicit to Tacit - “internalization” through active participation and repetition.

Information Handling Skills

• To have a successful knowledge system, the user's mental model and information handling skills must 🤝 with the system. The following skills are valuable:

  1. The ability to create new information systems or redesign old ones without a tremendous amount of friction.

  2. The ability to set limitations.

     • 🔍 Limit time in searching for information

     • 🔍 Create efficient analyzing methods

     • 📦 Ability to unpack and repackage information

  3. Proficiency in automating processes, of which the same automation can be improved.

Practical PKM Classifications

👋 For those using digital tools and looking for some practical property terms, here is what I use.

• Before creating files and structures, understand what role you want schemes to play. 🔍 What queries will you most likely make inside your PKM? The number of classification schemes is equivalent to the number of possible queries.

• Start from general concepts and file into more narrow tags.

Tagging For Making Distinctions

1. Use a timestamp inside naming model → [Example]

2. Make tags as short and unique as possible to minimize confusion

3. Utilize abbreviations and extensions consistently

4. Use namespace links when appropriate

   • Two different terms explain the same concept. (1st president/George Washington) Show the first term — hide and link the second. → [Example]

Knowledge Delivery

• A flexible, non-linear, yet organized system encourages knowledge-sharing, particularly knowledge that is tacit. As well, the lack of a hierarchy allows for greater instances of knowledge-sharing.

  • sharing effective tacit knowledge is caused by a motivation to act:

    1. The action itself must not be difficult to undertake in that the motivation is clear to the sender and the receiver.

    2. Outcome of the action must be perceived as useful to the receiver. In short, greater ease of use for the receiver = greater ease of use for the sender inside the system.