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Knowledge 2.0: Staying Afloat in the Information Age
Knowledge 1.0 has its foundations on a solid rock of unchangeable truth. It’s a world where knowledge is fixed and forever.
Knowledge 2.0 is floating on a sea of uncertainty and doubt. It’s a world where knowledge is personal, evolves with time and approximates what’s really happening in the world.
This book is about understanding the limitations of a Knowledge 2.0 world and how best to navigate within them.
It will help you make better decisions about everything from money to work to health.
Our access to knowledge is extraordinary, much of it available through a phone that rarely leaves our side. The problem is no longer finding information; it’s sifting it for the good stuff. Facts are often distorted by laziness or incompetence, and truths are sometimes twisted or hidden for financial gain, or to evade the consequences of mistakes or failures.
It doesn’t help that we – as human beings – have trouble discerning truth from untruth, and fact from fiction. There is a powerful personal component to what we carry around with us in our heads and call knowledge. We process and generate information with a set of unique experiences and biases, but we all have traits that can predispose us to error.
This is a user’s guide on how to navigate this new world of knowledge.
There are two aspects to getting better at judging the quality of the information around us. The first is to understand where it comes from and why it exists. The second is to understand how it works on our error-prone minds. This book explores both across six types of knowledge that are vital to staying afloat in the 21st
Narrative – story is the single most powerful form of knowledge and that alone makes it both incredibly useful and incredibly dangerous.
Confidence – knowing the limits of our knowledge is central to using that knowledge effectively.
Prediction – if we had perfect knowledge of the future, we’d be very wealthy and very safe.
Science – scientific knowledge is ubiquitous in modern life, it’s crucial to understand the processes that generate it.
Chance – randomness controls a frightening amount of our lives, much more than many of us understand.
Problem solving — no one’s going to stay afloat in the Information Age unless they can fill knowledge gaps and find solutions.
This is not an instruction manual for chipping away at an amorphous mass of contradictory information until a set of forever-true axioms is revealed beneath like some Renaissance statue. All knowledge is personal. The internal store of beliefs that we hold to be true will only ever approximate what’s really out there in the world around us. This is a book about understanding that, and how best to navigate the world within that limitation. How to use it to make good decisions for ourselves and our families about everything from jobs to healthcare and personal finance.
Reviews
'Mark Chisnell’s fascinating book uses racing and sailing triumphs and tragedies… to analyse human behaviour, decision making and problem solving, offering insight into the best way we can use the knowledge we have to react to a given situation... An insightful read for sailors and non-sailors alike.
Knowledge 2.0 is floating on a sea of uncertainty and doubt. It’s a world where knowledge is personal, evolves with time and approximates what’s really happening in the world.
This book is about understanding the limitations of a Knowledge 2.0 world and how best to navigate within them.
It will help you make better decisions about everything from money to work to health.
Our access to knowledge is extraordinary, much of it available through a phone that rarely leaves our side. The problem is no longer finding information; it’s sifting it for the good stuff. Facts are often distorted by laziness or incompetence, and truths are sometimes twisted or hidden for financial gain, or to evade the consequences of mistakes or failures.
It doesn’t help that we – as human beings – have trouble discerning truth from untruth, and fact from fiction. There is a powerful personal component to what we carry around with us in our heads and call knowledge. We process and generate information with a set of unique experiences and biases, but we all have traits that can predispose us to error.
This is a user’s guide on how to navigate this new world of knowledge.
There are two aspects to getting better at judging the quality of the information around us. The first is to understand where it comes from and why it exists. The second is to understand how it works on our error-prone minds. This book explores both across six types of knowledge that are vital to staying afloat in the 21st
Narrative – story is the single most powerful form of knowledge and that alone makes it both incredibly useful and incredibly dangerous.
Confidence – knowing the limits of our knowledge is central to using that knowledge effectively.
Prediction – if we had perfect knowledge of the future, we’d be very wealthy and very safe.
Science – scientific knowledge is ubiquitous in modern life, it’s crucial to understand the processes that generate it.
Chance – randomness controls a frightening amount of our lives, much more than many of us understand.
Problem solving — no one’s going to stay afloat in the Information Age unless they can fill knowledge gaps and find solutions.
This is not an instruction manual for chipping away at an amorphous mass of contradictory information until a set of forever-true axioms is revealed beneath like some Renaissance statue. All knowledge is personal. The internal store of beliefs that we hold to be true will only ever approximate what’s really out there in the world around us. This is a book about understanding that, and how best to navigate the world within that limitation. How to use it to make good decisions for ourselves and our families about everything from jobs to healthcare and personal finance.
Reviews
'Mark Chisnell’s fascinating book uses racing and sailing triumphs and tragedies… to analyse human behaviour, decision making and problem solving, offering insight into the best way we can use the knowledge we have to react to a given situation... An insightful read for sailors and non-sailors alike.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 2, 2024
11 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Mark Chisnell
36 books61 followersMark Chisnell has written 16 books, they’ve been translated into five languages and topped sales and download charts in the USA, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Mark writes suspense and mystery thrillers, technical books on the art and science of racing sailboats, along with non-fiction books and journalism on travel, sport and technology for some of the world's leading magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and the Guardian.
Mark began his writing with travel stories, while hitch-hiking around the world. He got a job sweeping up and making tea with the British America’s Cup team in Australia in 1987 to earn the money to get home. He worked his way onto the boat as navigator and has sailed and worked with six more America’s Cup teams since then. He’s also won three World Championships in sailing, and currently runs the Technical Innovation Group at Land Rover BAR, Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup team.
Mark now lives by a river in the UK with his wife, two young sons and a dog – whenever he gets a couple of minutes peace he can usually be found reading a Jack Reacher novel, or the latest from Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell.
Mark writes suspense and mystery thrillers, technical books on the art and science of racing sailboats, along with non-fiction books and journalism on travel, sport and technology for some of the world's leading magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and the Guardian.
Mark began his writing with travel stories, while hitch-hiking around the world. He got a job sweeping up and making tea with the British America’s Cup team in Australia in 1987 to earn the money to get home. He worked his way onto the boat as navigator and has sailed and worked with six more America’s Cup teams since then. He’s also won three World Championships in sailing, and currently runs the Technical Innovation Group at Land Rover BAR, Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup team.
Mark now lives by a river in the UK with his wife, two young sons and a dog – whenever he gets a couple of minutes peace he can usually be found reading a Jack Reacher novel, or the latest from Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell.
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