Communication as Knowledge Transfer

• When you look at communication from the perspective of Knowledge Transfer,
• Person X, who has the knowledge, doesn't know how person Y, who doesn't have the knowledge, would feel about the text.
• Y doesn't know what knowledge is lacking or what questions to ask compared to X This is the situation.

It is a huge burden for X to speculate and document that "Y may not understand this part.

• Often, it produces a document with a poor outlook that is filled with things that don't need to be written.
• The larger the document, the higher the cost of maintaining it and finding the desired one.
• The larger the document, the greater the burden for the reader. It is difficult for Y to skip over and read only what is necessary.

It is an impossible task for Y to verbalize what he does not know compared to X. So we need a low-cost way for X to first create a document without worrying about Y, and then express at low cost when Y reads it and thinks, "[I don't know.

• This "low cost" is not just about UI design.
  • Don't be ashamed of what you don't know psychological safety.
  • No DISCRETION, such as, "Will asking questions interfere with my work?"
  • Includes such things as

A device that makes it easier for person Y without knowledge to express "I don't know" at a low cost is, for example

• Permanent links in smaller units
  • What do you mean by "what are we talking about here?" It is easier to point to the
    • Scrapbox Row Permalink
• Comments can be hung anywhere in the text.
  • Easy to have discussions about things you don't understand
    • Comment function in Google Docs
    • Scrapbox solves the problem with a "bulleted co-editing" operation.
• Highlight Words you don't understand in the text to easily express "I don't understand".
  • A type of collaborative editing tool operation such as Google Docs
  • In the case of Scrapbox, it expresses the feeling of not understanding by making it a link, but also provides a place to write an explanation.
    • Share what you don't know
• Asynchronous means of communication
  • I can immediately output what's on my mind without thinking, "If I ask a question now, will it interfere with my work?" You can immediately output what you are interested in without thinking about
    • Shared Space Communication

and others.

relevance

• Just as there is "making something the customer doesn't want" in software, there is "writing something the reader doesn't want" in documentation.

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/知識の継承としてのコミュニケーション using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I'm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.