Being Human

Qualia (from the Latin, meaning “what sort” or “what kind”; Latin and English singular “quale”, pronounced KWAHL-ay) are most simply defined as qualities or feelings, like redness, as considered independently of their effects on behavior.

In more philosophical terms, qualia are properties of sensory experiences by virtue of which there is something it is like to have them.  (http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Qualia)

Feeling Complexity

I have a memory of being a child living in an apartment.   My mother was out for some reason and it was a cold winter day.   I heard her putting the key into the door and since the door had multiple locks I jumped up and ran to the door to help.   When the door opened up I felt a blast of cold air as she grabbed me and hugged me.  I could smell the scent of rain and snow mixed in with her normal mom smell.   The cool feeling of her outside jacked was cold to the touch but warm to my heart.    This is one of my favorite memories but it is truly hard to describe.

Collecting Knowledge

Everything we can manage is the result of something we can produce.   We can suppress emotions but we can’t really manage them.   We can suppress our reaction to something as long as we can condition our minds to respond to input based on practices of conditioning.   In other words,  if you are boxer,  you may have a condition where you tolerate more pain but we technically can’t manage it.

A collection of knowledge is a “best attempt” to get information about something.    Imagine if we sought to collect all of the knowledge you have, how could this be done?   You don’t even have access to all of your knowledge.    In fact, we rationalize the things we don’t know by addressing them with faith.   I don’t mean religion when I say faith, I mean a rule of expectation.   These rules of expectation allow us to perform tasks.   They are short cuts that our brains use to be effective.

When collecting knowledge, we have to unearth the short cuts. 

When you turn on your computer, you have an expectation that it will perform as you expect.  You may not possess all of the knowledge in the device, all of the knowledge that the device is connected with and/or the knowledge to make the device itself function.

If you wanted to collect knowledge about the device, you would seek out all of these things and more.   In a way, it doesn’t make sense.    What a lot of people say at that point of complication is “it is what it is.”  Why?  Because we can only manage so much and tolerate so much, there are thresholds that we should consider.

We might consider the term Knowledge Management a false harmony.   We can see an explicit list of things in a collection but it would be at best faith to consider that we could attain an understanding and rationalization of this list of things.

Where’s Waldo

Why are we looking for Waldo?

What is the purpose of Waldo?

Even though there is a lot of information here,  the knowledge to find Waldo in fact lives outside of the picture in your head.   I will find Waldo either before or after you find Waldo.  In fact, the only way I could find Waldo faster than you for certain is if I had this picture before you and I know where he is.    One thing is for sure for most of us, we have faith and belief that Waldo is in fact in this image.   What if he isn’t there?  The shortcut of belief that Waldo is in the picture allows us to set the stage to spend more time looking for Waldo.   I could present you with the answer of where Waldo is or you could go on the learning journey of discovery and find Waldo yourself.

It all boils down to the fact that it is all complicated.    We could even consider that depending on our level of tolerance for frustration and patience that you or I may never find Waldo.

Knowledge Management Considerations

We could consider that since we have the technology to collect but we don’t have the capacity to yet understand the wholeness of a collection, that we still need to consider and maintain the value of our subject matter experts.

Knowledge has the most fidelity at the personal level.   We should consider that any overall Knowledge Management practice will always end with something to collect and someone to maintain or interpret the collection. As opposed to gaining the collection as an holistically explicit thing unto itself.