Hello Reader,

Most people complaint they don’t have an overview of their knowledge:

• What domains of knowledge do you know the most about?
• What are your particular topics of expertise?
• How does your knowledge transfer between domains?
• How does your expertise differ from the expert next door?

Those are questions that everyone wanting to be original should know or occasionally think about.

Of course, you can always take a piece of paper now and start reflecting on these questions based on your current perception.

That should give you a good working answer.

But how can you keep that up to date? How can you ensure that is an accurate picture of what you ACTUALLY know?

It is often the case that what we know and what we have already communicated to others are not the same thing. We always know more than we communicate and, for those who love learning, this gap will keep increasing.

So, instead, I suggest you use your personal notes to capture your knowledge even if you haven’t communicated it to someone else (yet).

But don’t just write.

Do it in a way that you can SEE your expertise areas later.

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1. Capture your thoughts

Not your sources, not your highlights. Instead, capture your thoughts.

Write down your learnings from your sources and experiences, and make sense of what it is that you actually know (even if just a little).

Explain it in full, don’t just quick jot or bullet point.

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2. Break it all down into idea notes

Each note should focus on only one idea - that’s what I call an “idea note”. You can’t SEE what you know if it is all hidden inside very long notes.

So take some time to break down your original writing into idea notes to:

• make sense of your thoughts (thoughts just come to mind, you still need to make sense of them), and
• organise your notes (so when it is time to find an idea, you only search for its note, directly).

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3. Create an overview map

We would love to have a single structure with all our ideas so we look at it and know exactly what we know.

All ideas fall into broader categories, you can navigate up and down the structure, and all knowledge is accessible in a couple of clicks.

It is organised, it gives peace of mind, and it is also.. just a romantic dream.

Knowledge does not work that way.

Your knowledge structure will depend on the context. Some ideas can be part of multiple generalisations. Other ideas are more suited for “lateral navigation” rather than “top-down” (generic-specific) navigation. You will have ideas that form sequences and these sequences can also run in reverse order. You will have ideas participating in alternative argument paths.

You have an idea of the mess that knowledge creation can be.

So, how to create an overview map?

Take your idea notes and create small structures from them (pairs, groups, sequences). Each structure ALWAYS gives rise to a new idea. That is one idea that represents a piece of your expertise.

As you make sense of your sources, reflect on your job practice, and communicate your thoughts to others, you will naturally develop these new ideas.

So, as they appear, put them in your overview map (your “portfolio map”).

The goal is not to have a single “looking good” structure. Instead, the goal is to get clarity (and quick access to that knowledge, of course).

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As you apply these 3 steps, you will end up with a simple (yet powerful) network of ideas. It has YOUR knowledge (as it came straight from your mind), and small structures that aggregate those ideas forming YOUR expertise.

Knowing what you know doesn’t become a "once in a while" reflection process anymore. Instead, you can SEE what you know, and can purposefully engage with that knowledge, either to grow it even more or to communicate to someone.

Take some time today to start this process:

• 10 min writing your thoughts down
• 40 min breaking it down into idea notes
• 10 min creating structures from your thoughts

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And if you are having trouble, feel free to reach out and let’s have a chat.

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This is the workflow that made me change my note-taking app from Obsidian to Scrintal. I have just published a Youtube video about it if you want to check it out.

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Talk to you soon.

Until then, take care.

Bianca