Be sure to hear ’em out

Last weekend one of my best friends paid me a visit. Whenever he drops by, we have some good discussions regarding science, technology, a bit of philosophy and psychology and many more interesting subjects. This time he introduced me to:

‘The 3 Types of Knowledge’

the theory is — there are three fundamental categories of information.

1. Shit you know
2. Shit you know that you don’t know
3. Shit you don’t know that you don’t know

For a deeper understanding let’s take an example. I am a designer by profession. If someone asks me to help design an app, I would be able to do it with ease. This is ‘Shit I know’. If someone tells me to cook something, I know that I won’t be able to do it. This is ‘Shit I know I dont know’. Now before I got to know about Medium, I was completely unaware that such a platform existed! Medium (before I discovered it) was in my sphere/area of ‘Shit I didn’t know that I didn’t know’ — Basically, something that exists that you aren’t aware of, falls under this category

By now you would be wondering, this sounds like an interesting concept but how does it matter to you? Well, after giving it some thought I came to the conclusion that this is something I have observed in the Newton Design team.

Newton Design Team

Newton’s design team consists of people who possess a vast variety of skills. All of the designers have some unique abilities. We have someone who is remarkable at content writing, someone who is excellent at illustration and branding, someone who is great at motion graphics and prototyping, someone who is an amazing curator and has an experienced eye for the bigger picture. So, as a team we have been collectively able to make our sphere of ‘Shit you dont know, you don’t know’ smaller and parallely increasing our sphere of ‘Shit you know’ and also ‘Shit you know, you don’t know’ bigger.

Now imagine if our team consisted of people who possessed exactly the same skill sets. We would never have been able to improve our sphere of ‘Shit you know, you dont know’ and ‘Shit you know.’

Now, how can this help you? Whenever you decide to build a team, instead of getting people who are exactly like you, try bringing in people who can put something new on the table. Such people can help you add to the team’s collective knowledge. While interviewing a prospect, let them speak their mind and hear ’em out; you may come across something valuable which ‘You didn’t know that you didn’t know’, until then. It’s always great to have a team which is diverse — culturally, intellectually or in any other way. Everyone is better at something and if that something is the magic your team lacks, go ahead and get them in. Try to make your sphere of ‘Shit you don’t know, you dont know’ smaller.

Finally, thanks for patiently hearing me out. I hope this helped you broaden your horizons.

You can also read an article by Steve Schwartz about the 3 Types of Knowledge, for deeper understanding.

Thanks Bhaumik Kaji for introducing me to this. Also, thanks to the people at Newton for helping me figure/write this up.