The Dynamic Nature of Personal Knowledge Management.
Techniques for Continually Reshaping and Reinterpreting Your PKMS
A Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS) is more than just a static repository of information. Its true value lies in its dynamic nature and its ability to evolve alongside the user's understanding.
A neglected PKMS, gathering dust and forgotten, serves little purpose. Occasional reference breathes some life into it, but its full potential remains untapped.
The most effective PKMS is one that is constantly revisited, refined, and reinterpreted. As the user's knowledge grows and perspectives shift, the PKMS becomes a reflection of this evolution, serving as a valuable tool for ongoing learning and personal growth.
This relates to the problem of memory addressed by Heinz von Foerster in his article “What Is Memory that It May Have Hindsight and Foresight as well?”, see “The Critical Role of Memory in Personal Knowledge Management Systems, A Vision of the modern Zettelkasten”.
More recently, Michael Levin has written an intriguing article titled “Self-Improvising Memories”. He presented a perspective on memory as preserving saliency, rather than accuracy, and suggested that that is what happens in biology.
Here are some methods to perform Reshaping and Re-interpretation in PKMS:
Re-categorization:
PKMS typically suffers from premature categorization, and therefore a system where categories can be changed flexibly from time to time is essential.
Insight Mining:
“Insight Mining” is actually just a fancy term for obtaining statistics of the existing PKMS: It involves tracking the development of topics and themes, identifying anomalies, outliers, and contradictions, and generally emphasizing the patterns of long-term focus.
Generative Prompts:
Generative prompts are questions or statements designed to spur creative reflection and help users see their notes from new angles. They're a form of "cognitive scaffolding" that provides structure and direction for thinking beyond just passively reviewing old notes.
Some examples:
- "What would I tell my younger self about this topic?"
- "How might an expert in [unrelated field] approach this concept?"
- "What are the most counterintuitive implications of this idea?"
- "Argue against this from the perspective of [worldview or belief system]"
- "How would this look in a more/less technologically advanced world?"
- "Explain the key points using only the 1000 most common English words"
The goal is to break users out of habitual ways of thinking about their knowledge and spur them to make novel connections and interpretations. Creativity is often combinatorial - the prompts provide new "idea spaces" to project notes into and see what emerges.
Summarization and Remixing:
Summarization is a form of lossy compression, and the risk of losing fidelity accumulates if summarization is applied progressively. However, compression is useful because of our mental limitations of thinking about too many things at the same time. Condensed and full of meaning are the preconditions of Prägnanz, which in turn is the precondition for creative idea generation.
Other methods:
Other methods that have not been discussed here include Versioning, Contextual resurfacing, and Collaborative teamwork.
Conclusion:
Memory and knowledge are not static - they require active management, sensemaking, and a willingness to challenge one's own assumptions. A PKMS that embodies these principles can be a powerful asset, serving as a springboard for creativity, discovery, and lifelong learning. Investing the time to continually revitalize and reimagine one's PKMS is thus an invaluable personal and intellectual endeavor.