There’s one thing that has been on my mind a lot recently: I haven’t found a good way to visualize what I know about a topic and what I should learn next.

This post is I think the start of a longer exploration of the topic with experiments around how to possibly solve the problem for myself.

Note: I am sure this is a solved problem already and there are battle-tested solutions ready to use elsewhere online. Half the joy I find in this research effort is coming up with something without influence, I will happily compare notes later (looking at you PKM nerds).

digging through the fog

The thought came again as I was searching for new music. I was recently booked to play some Jazz at a cocktail bar in Busan, South Korea. Of course, when I say play Jazz, I just press play, I don’t have any of the talent of actual players. I simply hope that I can build a good selection of tracks and artists that can make a night feel nice.

The effort to look for music for the gig is one of the funnest parts of it. I wasn’t starting from scratch. I had a few albums I listened to recently that felt like a good starting point to explore and discover more.

And so I started, bouncing from release to releases. From albums to labels, generation, and countries. A few days later, after a blur of link clicking and fury listening, I had 50 open tabs with various albums to select from. Most of the effort for preparing the gig was done, and I could enjoy the selection moving forward.

Throughout this process I had made discoveries and a lot of learning about labels, artists, collectives, and regions. This learning is the main reason I still enjoy playing music in bars or clubs. It becomes a forcing function for learning about the culture and history. I had some insights into modern jazz music I didn’t have before and that made my day.

Through the mess

All this wonderful new knowledge learned via this process was split between a bunch of notes, tabs, downloads or just simply in my mind. I had no way to visualize the progress I had made in discovering new music, which is the main pain point I come back to here.

It is hard for me to remember all I’ve learned about jazz music so far through this exploration. I can transpose this problem to virtually anything I am learning: it is hard to know what I know about a topic, at least not easily.

I don’t have a good system for my personal discovery and knowledge. Partly because today it’s way too easy to rely on our phone or the internet. I am usually less worried about what I know, trusting that I can find it again with a little effort. But today, I want that to change.

I know that the next time I want to continue research the topic, it is going to be a hassle to remember everything learned up to this point, and know where to go next. So I want to solve that problem.

What normal learning looks like

My next thought is on how knowledge is represented today. When public (i.e. not personal), it is a textbook. A logical progression from one chapter to the next and to the next. You can’t start learning 102 before you finish 101. Somebody decided that maybe you needed 101 to learn 102, or that maybe it made sense to them. I find this normalization to be fantastic for education but absolutely soul crushing for any creative learning. If learning about anything is about following a path that has already been decided and formatted so that we have to go through the same steps that have been taken forever, then it doesn’t feel human.

I’m working with the theory that knowledge and learning is not linear, the vast array of things we learn and discover throughout our lives cannot be summarized as a simple linked-list we iterate over one node at a time. We’re explorers, we venture and go down rabbit holes whenever our interest is piqued. We try something, open up a book and it doesn’t stick, we go back and try to find another entry-way. This part of learning, finding one’s own path through it, gets the most excited. Yet, I don’t have a way to see what my path has been and it could be next.

A singular path

To come back to the example of music, I would love to remember that I discovered Robert Glasper through a Massive Attack cover video I randomly found, which then lead me to Black Radio III, and then which helped me hop onto Alfa Mist, who then helped me discover Kokoroko. There are probably other people that had the same path through these discoveries, but there are at least as many that haven’t taken this path at all.

Now I can remember this trail because I was just through it, but odds are that I can’t remember this particular path a year from now. This is interesting not only for the sake of remembering but also for the sake of future exploration.

With many edges

Discovery starts at a place already known, and by looking at the edge of it you can find out new stuff, connected to what you already know, that extends your knowledge. You take a few step into the tall grass and find a new tree you haven’t seen before, maybe it’s part of the same group of trees, or maybe it’s wildly different and unique, and who knows what comes next.

What I mean here is that the next time I want to explore more Jazz, I might start from kokoroko, but I also might start from alfa mist. Both choices would make my discovery go in two different directions, and they’re both equally valid. With each step I’m expanding the map of what I know and push the boundaries further.

To find those entry points, notes and linear entries are valid, I guess this is how personal knowledge has been made since we learned how to write. But I have been dreaming of something less linear, more organic. Mind-mapping is closer to where I want to go but it doesn’t feel that intuitive to me, especially when I want to categorize the different types of knowledge discovered.

I believe there are ways to make this very personal and fun to build and look at. So this entry is a first step into my research into the best way to represent, browse and keep on searching through my knowledge.

I am now curious and excited to continue exploring this, and find ways to draw the maps I so long for.