Learning Better Using Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is the implicit knowledge that is difficult to transfer to others via written or verbal instructions. It is also known as “Know-How” as opposed to “Know-What”. Think about riding a bike or learning a language as daily life examples.

But the story goes beyond just daily life examples. Henry Bessemer was a prolific nineteenth-century industrialist and inventor. Among a long list of inventions, he also invented the Bessemer steel manufacturing process. After perfecting his craft, he patented the process.

But eager licensees simply could not get it to work. After a lot of effort, they lost trust in Bessemer and abandoned his process. Could someone so reputable as Bessemer have cheated his licensees? Well, you will find out soon enough.

But before that, we will need to cover a thing or two about tacit knowledge first. Why don’t we start with differentiating tacit knowledge from explicit knowledge?

Tacit Knowledge Vs. Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge is formal rule-based knowledge that is conventionally passed from one person to another via formal education. For this reason, it is also known as codified knowledge — it covers the “Know-What”.

Let us go back to learning a language. How did you learn your mother tongue? Did you learn the grammatical structures and rules first? Or did you pick it up from observational and environmental cues? If you were a normal child, I’d bet on the latter.

This style of learning relates more to tacit knowledge rather than explicit knowledge. But that does not mean that explicit knowledge does not have its own place.

I have learned completely new languages after becoming an adult. And I could not just ‘pick them up’. I needed to go about the process more formally and learn the grammatical structures and rules first.

BUT once I had a strong basis, I could venture out into the real world and learn the languages further from environmental cues and empirical experiences.

So, what started as a purely tacit phenomenon transformed into a combination of explicit and tacit knowledge after my adulthood. Just what is going on here?

We will answer this question in the forthcoming sections. But for now, back to Bessemer.

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The Story of the Bessemer Process

It turns out that Henry Bessemer was not scamming anyone. The process involved some amount of tacit knowledge and craftsmanship that could not be transferred via patents or instructions.

Bessemer built a complete working model of his process in his laboratory in St. Pancras and proved his process once and for all. All this did was expose the ‘incompetence’ of his licensees even more. So, they avoided his process even harder.

In the end, Henry Bessemer set up his own steel plant and went on to dominate the steel industry at the time. I wonder if either Bessemer or his licensees realised that the nature of the problem here was tacit knowledge. So, what could we learn from this story?

Paint Your Own Canvas

It is quite clear that any learning process involves both tacit knowledge as well as explicit knowledge. Let us say that you are interested in mastering the ways of mathematics.

It is hard for me to imagine anyone mastering mathematics without actually establishing strong fundamentals. And explicit knowledge provides a good basis for building fundamentals. But at the same time, learning should be fun as well.

You cannot be doing everything by the book and expect creativity and fun to manifest themselves. A comedian would say, “Explaining a joke kills the humour in the process.”

Similarly, to have fun, one should be prepared to venture out into the world and play around with what little one knows.

Expertise, then, is a combination of rock-solid fundamentals gained from explicit knowledge and adventurous exploration leading to tacit knowledge. The key is to realise when and how to mix tacit knowledge processes into the learning canvas.

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How to Learn Better Using Tacit Knowledge

Each person is unique. In this sense, the learning method needs to be subjective as well. Pay attention to the moment you get bored and start losing focus. That is valuable information.

As soon as you get bored, try exploring and adventuring using your current level of knowledge. At the same time, don’t get too ahead of yourself.

Hold yourself accountable for building strong fundamentals via disciplined accumulation of explicit knowledge. You will need more of this to have more fun later.

As a result of the real-world experience and fun, your tacit knowledge improves. While explicit knowledge is standard run-of-the-mill, it helps you connect and communicate with the rest of the experts in the field.

On the other hand, your tacit knowledge is yours and yours alone. It defines and is defined by your personality. It lets you express yourself and is expressed by you.

What I have shared in this short essay is not exclusive to the field of mathematics. It applies in general to the process of learning — be it in a deeply technical field or in a vibrantly artistic field.

The proportions of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge vary depending upon the field and your personality. You do you and figure out what works best for you in the process. All the best!

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References: Michael Polanyi and J. E. Gordon.

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Further reading that might interest you:

• How To Be More Mindful And Not Get Lost In Thought?
• How To Perfectly Predict Impossible Events?
• Brain Plasticity: How To Really Supercharge Your Intellect?

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