Capture what you learn, capture what you know

In her blogpost Mapping what I’m learning, Sacha Chua ponders about using mapping to get an overview of what she is learning and of what she knows. She already captures knowledge in sketches, blogposts and Evernote notes. For her,

Mapping is about organizing topics so that I can see the relationships, find the gaps, and keep moving forward.

This post is a reminder for me that I do not capture enough of my knowledge. I have a private wiki (as recommended in „Pragmatic Thinking and learning„) but I rarely use it. It is also a reminder that „text“ is just one option to capture knowledge. There are more graphical options like topic maps and mind maps. They tend to let you use both of your brain hemispheres whereas „text-only“ is „left hemisphere“ heavy. I try to use mind maps more these days.

Sacha mentions „How to read a book“ by Adler and van Doren. It’s looks interesting and there appears to be an online full-text „pre-view“ on Google Books. A pointer to get more out of books.

In the comment section there is a reference to IBIS (Issue based Information System) which basically is about recording issues (questions), positions (ideas) and arguments in order to preserve important decision making processes in addition to recording just the results. The overview mentions IBIS as a tool to capture design rationale. I think I read about it several years ago. It might even have been a paper about  Questions, Options and Criteria (QOC). So this is a pointer from personal knowledge management to organizational knowlege management.

So thanks for the nice post. It got me thinking.