We've got a new post on Commonplace! 👉 Tacit Knowledge is a Real Thing
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Interesting read! Early in my education career, I was taught about declarative (name, explain, talk) vs procedural knowledge (act, do, perform). How do you think about the difference between tacit knowledge and procedural knowledge?
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I believe there's some overlap, but they are two orthogonal concepts. The degree to which procedural knowledge can be explained, and picked up by the learner, is where it lies on a spectrum of explicit to tacit.
(This is greatly oversimplifying; Polanyi would disagree strongly)
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That's helpful thanks. In this context, I wonder if the [explicit<->tacit] spectrum is similar to [simple<->complex]. i.e. tacit knowledge is complex procedural knowledge. Learners would approach them similarly, via mentor, apprentice, peer-to-peer, etc. so functionally similar?
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I think it's fair to say that expertise gives you the ability to execute complex procedural knowledge, yeah.
But Sources of Power (Klein) also explains that expertise is more than just complex procedures — it's also the ability to find creative solutions and adapt.