obsidian vault layout 2025 context and knowledge shape each other
Classifying knowledge
This note has an overview of all the different kinds of knowledge I could find. It was a direct response to Fighting Infomania Why 80% of Your Reading is a Waste of Time, and it’s something I struggle with. What should I read, what should I write about?
Knowledge can be categorized in various ways depending on the philosophical, cognitive, or practical framework we’re using. Here are the major types of knowledge that relate to how we understand and use language:
Epistemological Categories
Propositional Knowledge (Know-that)
- Factual information that can be stated explicitly
- “I know that Paris is the capital of France”
- Easily transmitted through language and documentation
The only reason this kind of information is in a PKM is because it is something i want to learn, functioning as a foundation for more interesting topics. These kind of notes are tagged as concept.
Procedural Knowledge (Know-how)
- Skills and abilities that are often difficult to articulate
- “I know how to ride a bicycle” or “I know how to construct a grammatically correct sentence”
- Often tacit and acquired through practice rather than instruction
Not really part of a slip-box, but the P in PKM is personal, some things just need to be remembered because the information is not needed often, but might be annoying to find again: “I know how to reprogram my router”, stupid, but important. This will never become public, so might just as well be stored in the Private folder in the PKM.
Experiential Knowledge (Know-what-it’s-like)
- Subjective, first-person understanding of experiences
- “I know what it’s like to feel anxiety” or “I know what it’s like to understand a joke”
- Particularly challenging to convey through language alone
This is usually part of the Journal part of a PKM.
Temporal and Contextual Categories
Just-in-Case Knowledge
- Information we acquire and store for potential future use
- Like learning emergency procedures or memorizing phone numbers
- Reflects our anticipatory relationship with uncertainty
Just-in-Time Knowledge
- Information we seek out precisely when we need it
- Googling a recipe while cooking or looking up syntax while coding
- Represents our adaptive, resource-efficient approach to information
Tactical Knowledge
- Practical, situational understanding focused on immediate problem-solving
- Knowing how to navigate a specific social situation or debug a particular error
- Often context-dependent and action-oriented
Strategic Knowledge
- Broader understanding of patterns, principles, and long-term planning
- Understanding market dynamics or recognizing narrative structures
- Involves seeing connections across different domains and time scales
Cognitive and Social Dimensions
Explicit Knowledge
- Consciously accessible and easily verbalized
- Can be written down, taught systematically, and shared through formal communication
- Scientific facts, rules, procedures
Tacit Knowledge
- Unconscious, intuitive understanding that’s difficult to articulate
- Cultural norms, aesthetic judgments, the “feel” for when something is right
- Often transmitted through modeling, practice, and social immersion
Difficult to place in a PKM
Embodied Knowledge
- Understanding that exists in our physical, sensorimotor experience
- How we know personal space boundaries or recognize emotional expressions
- Deeply integrated with our bodily experience of the world
Distributed Knowledge
- Understanding that exists across networks of people, tools, and systems
- No single person knows how to build a smartphone from scratch
- Emerges from collective intelligence and collaborative systems
Philosophical Distinctions
Philosophical Knowledge
- Abstract, foundational understanding about the nature of reality, meaning, and existence
- Questions about consciousness, free will, the nature of knowledge itself
- Often involves grappling with paradoxes and fundamental uncertainties
Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)
- Aristotelian concept of knowing how to act well in particular situations
- Combines general principles with contextual sensitivity
- The kind of knowledge that guides ethical decision-making
Language-Specific Considerations
Linguistic Competence
- Unconscious knowledge of grammar, syntax, and language rules
- We know how to form sentences without explicitly knowing grammatical rules
- Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance
Pragmatic Knowledge
- Understanding of how context shapes meaning
- Knowing when someone is being sarcastic, indirect, or performative
- Social and cultural knowledge that informs communication
Semantic vs. Syntactic Knowledge
- Semantic: Understanding meaning and reference
- Syntactic: Understanding structural relationships and rules
- Both essential for language comprehension and production
The boundaries between these categories are often fluid, and most real-world knowledge involves combinations of multiple types. The framework you choose depends on what aspects of knowledge and language use you’re most interested in exploring.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Literature notes
Fighting Infomania Why 80% of Your Reading is a Waste of Time
Fleeting notes
- just in case
- just in time
- tactical knowledge
- philosophical knowledge Etc, rewrite