I'm thinking of writing a book about "Networking and Experts: How to Create a Personal Knowledge Base". I'd like to present my first chapter for review. And if you like this format, I'll post the rest of the chapters here too.
Chapter 1: What is a personal knowledge base? (and why do you need this mess)
Imagine that your brain is an intangible closet with a million shelves, on which notes, ideas, conversations with friends and all those facts that you once learned but never used are scattered chaotically. This is exactly what happens if you don't have a personal knowledge base. It is your magic closet, where everything is laid out on shelves, labeled, notes and knowledge are linked, and even a couple of experts are found that you can always turn to. But let's talk about everything in order and with a drop of humor!
- Example: Why the Brain Isn't the Best "Knowledge Base"
A smart person once said, "The human brain is a great tool for generating ideas, but terrible for storing them." Do you remember talking to Vasya about blockchain three weeks ago? No? Neither do I. This is where a personal knowledge base comes into play, turning you into a professional systematizer of chaos.
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Tagging is your new best friend
The key to a perfect knowledge base is tagging. Imagine throwing information into your closet, and then when you need to find something, you just type in a keyword and *whoops*, the closet opens right on the right shelf! For example, you can link the article "Why Blockchain Technologies Are Needed in Education" to the tags "technology", "education", "blockchain", and voila - your database works for you. Want to discuss this with Petya, who just so happens to be your blockchain expert? Great! Link the note to Petya and easily remember that he was the one who helped you understand the topic last time.
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Linking Notes: The Web of Knowledge
What's even cooler? You can link one note to another, as if you were weaving a web of knowledge. For example, if you write about blockchain in education, your knowledge base can automatically link this note to others where you discussed digital security or the progress of artificial intelligence. This helps your brain easily travel through all your smart thoughts and create new brilliant ideas. It's as if you were saying: "Remember how I wrote a note about how robots will take over the world? How does this relate to blockchain?" This is where the magic begins!
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Experts: How not to lose them in the data flow?
But we do not gain all knowledge on our own. Sometimes expert support is simply necessary! You have colleagues, acquaintances and experts who can shed light on a particular issue. That's why you can (and should!) connecting notes to contacts in your personal knowledge base. For example, you talked to an expert on neural networks, added all of his recommendations to your knowledge base and added a link to his contact to the note. And six months later, you urgently need this person - and here he is, right in your knowledge base. Ideal for the lazy (or forgetful, and most of us are like that).
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Example: Greetings from the world of meaningless notebooks
In real life, without digital knowledge bases, everything works like this: you take notes on the run, on pieces of paper, in notebooks, on your phone, in messengers, and then... goodbye, my dear ideas! You know that somewhere you had a brilliant idea, but how can you find it? It's easier to wait for a new one. But what if all this was competently organized in one place with tags, connections and links to experts? Your productivity would skyrocket and your creativity would reach genius levels.
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Conclusion: A personal knowledge base is not a boring structure, but your secret assistant
When you have everything in its place at your fingertips, your brain is freed up for what really matters — creating new ideas. A personal knowledge base not only helps you remember information, but also find unexpected connections between ideas, notes, and people. And if you don’t want to turn into a person who is always looking for his lost notebook, start organizing your personal knowledge base now.
