Chapter 12 — Islands of Knowledge in Daily Life

Knowledge is not one huge unified group. It is usually formed in different groups, just like islands of knowledge.

Japanese Cooking

When you need to cook a Japanese meal, you activate the Japanese cooking island.

Inside this island are the Tags you need:

• the recipes
• the ingredients
• the cooking tools
• the cooking methods
• the cooking time
• the temperature
• the amount of water
• the steps
• the sequence of those steps

You do not need to activate everything you know. You do not need your knowledge about mathematics, driving, taxes, or music. You mainly need the Tags connected to Japanese cooking.

If you learn something new about Japanese cooking, you just update the Japanese cooking island. You don't need to update everything else.

For example, you may learn a better way to prepare one ingredient. That new knowledge can be Hard-Linked to the appropriate Tags inside the Japanese cooking island. Your other islands of knowledge do not need to change.

Driving to San Jose

Navigation works in a similar way.

Suppose you are driving south to San Jose.

The Tag [Going South — San Jose] can activate the knowledge you previously learned for that trip.

The related Tags can contain the steps to follow:

[Going South — San Jose]

→ get onto the correct road

→ follow the familiar route

→ recognize important exits

→ make the required turns

→ arrive in San Jose

When you reach a particular street, another group of Tags may become active.

If you know a shortcut on that specific street, the shortcut can be Hard-Linked to the Tag for that street.

It does not need to be connected to your entire navigation system.

It belongs there.

If you later learn that the shortcut is closed or discover a better shortcut, you update the knowledge associated with that street. You don't need to relearn how to drive to San Jose.

The Same Basic Structure

At first glance, cooking a Japanese meal and driving to San Jose appear to involve completely different kinds of knowledge.

But in this framework, their basic structures are very similar.

You activate a main Tag.

The main Tag activates a group of related Tags.

Those Tags contain information and procedures you learned before.

Then you follow the appropriate steps.

The Tag [Going South — San Jose], the Tag [Cooking Eggs], and the Tag [Addition of Two Numbers] work in the same general way.

The related Tags can contain the steps to follow after you have learned them.

The contents are completely different, but the organization can be the same.

This is what I mean by an island of knowledge.

Each island can grow and change mostly on its own, while References allow one island to reach another when necessary.