This is not a very original thought for a first blog. Nevertheless lately I’ve been thinking of that topic often enough to make it worth spending a few minutes writing and posting it as a first blog post.
According to Wikipedia a Knowledge Worker is:
Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge.
Most Software-related workers that I’ve met so far totally aware that knowledge is their most important asset. Unfortunately this can have very negative side effects.
Being paid just for having a knowledge in a scientific field or in a specific technology makes it really hard for someone to say “I didn’t know that”. After all, if your knowledge is your most important asset how could you admit that you lack of it?
I completely believe that being honest about what we know and what we don’t know is an essential for our learning progress as starters or professionals.
The fields we are working in today. In them, the things we could know about are evolving really fast, even faster than anyone of us can learn them. We are gradually knowing less and less about our field, every single day passing.
Whatever kind of government education you have, that part is only a very small (yet very important) part of your whole knowledge. The remaining of your knowledge is based on your personal experience. The chance of you knowing some things that your colleague doesn’t know and vice versa is really high, for any given topic.
In my opinion, there are three potential reactions when being confronted with something you don’t know:
- Give a nod and pretend that yeah, you know about it.
- Give a nod, pretend that yeah, you know about it and then go read about it.
- Say that you never heard of it and get as much knowledge as possible from the conversation.
Don’t get my words the wrong way. Reading is so great and I believe we all must thrive to increase our knowledge in whatever field we are working in. But if you have any chance to learn something that interests you from someone who knows about it at the small cost of a “I didn’t know that” it wouldn’t be smart to let that opportunity fly away.
Learning from other people is incredibly powerful and is one the fastest ways to gain new knowledge. Smart people are glad to share their knowledge. You better ask as many questions as possible to get the answers you’re looking for.
While writing this blog I felt that I have to come up with a new definition to a knowledge worker, a definition that is closer to the reality of volcanic information growth in the 21st century:
Knowledge workers are those with a strong understanding of the concepts inside their field and a strong ability to quickly acquire a new knowledge by the most efficient means.
You know a little, you know a lot. Make the best out of this contradiction.