How we put our collective talents to work is a social issue, not solely a personal one.
Clay ShirkyRead
Knowledge, unlike information, is a human characteristic; there can be information no one knows, but there can't be knowledge no one knows.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge is inherently tied to human understanding and cannot exist without awareness.
This quote highlights the distinction between knowledge and mere information. While information can exist independently of individuals' awareness or understanding, knowledge requires conscious recognition and comprehension by human beings. Thus, knowledge is a shared human trait, integrating personal insights and experiences, while information can be objective and abstract.
Themes
KnowledgeInformationUnderstandingWisdomHuman
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about education, one might emphasize the importance of transforming information into knowledge.
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Wikipedia took the idea of peer review and applied it to volunteers on a global scale, becoming the most important English reference work in less than 10 years. Yet the cumulative time devoted to creating Wikipedia, something like 100 million hours of human thought, is expended by Americans every weekend, just watching ads.
Clay ShirkyRead
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