Solid, liquid and gas

Instead of the tacit | explicit dichotomy, maybe it helps to imagine knowledge in three states: solid, liquid and gas.

Solid: This is the most ‘explicit’ and ‘captured’ of knowledge in physical form of documents in the broadest sense. It’s also going to tend to be the most formal kind and solid in that sense as well because, since it is recorded, it gains status and has to be robed in certain protections since it will very easily be quoted and referenced out of context.

As it melts it becomes more liquid – less formal and solid – more amenable to flowing in day-to-day currency.

As we pass it around and use it in day-to-day currency it becomes less solid and more liquid, just by that act.

Liquid: This is knowledge in that meso area that some treat as explicit (I think I would, because this is the spoken, everyday kind of knowledge) and some treat as tacit (because it isn’t the most explicit, solid, captured form even though it may be spoken). I said this is the spoken, everyday kind of knowledge and I mean it’s knowledge in liquid normal flow and currency: people talking, collaborating, asking and answering, communicating to achieve goals and maintain social bonds. This is knowledge very much in context and in the normal case, without a definite effort, it remains current, actual and live and has usefulness right there and then, not by dint of being captured and shared offline, asynchronously.

As it freezes it becomes solid, and, as it becomes solid, it – unnaturally – freezes.

As it vaporises it becomes gas, and, as it becomes gas, it becomes invisible and amorphous.

Gas: This is a gas you can’t see. This is a gas you can’t smell. Weightless, silent, this is true tacit. Some of it is simply unsaid, some of it is entirely undetected even by the knower.

As it condenses it becomes liquid and clearer in normal day-to-day currency.

As we make it clearer and less amorphous, it becomes amenable to being passed around in day-to-day usage.