You Need a Knowledge Investment Strategy
2.5 Minute Read
You need a knowledge investment strategy. Do you have one? If not, let me explain why you need one.
Knowledge Decay
Take a moment to think about all the things you learned one to two years ago. How many of them have you used in the past year? Perhaps you used most of them, or all of them.
Now think about all the things you learned three to five years ago. Chances are you don’t remember some of them, and you haven’t used others. They may have turned out to be incorrect, or you simply don’t need them any more because you learned something better. This is knowledge decay.
In 1963, economist Fritz Machlup described the rate of that decay as the half-life of knowledge.
“The half-life of knowledge or half-life of facts is the amount of time that has to elapse before half of the knowledge or facts in a particular area is superseded or shown to be untrue.” (Wikipedia).
The half-life is shortest in fast-changing fields with concepts, tools, and languages that are invented entirely by people; a prime example is software engineering. When a field of knowledge is based more on discovery of truth rather than invention, its half-life is longer. So knowledge about human behavior has a longer half-life than knowledge about software engineering. And knowledge about physics has a longer half-life than knowledge about human behavior.
The half-life of knowledge is a useful mental model to apply when you are deciding how to invest your time. Now let’s explore the idea of knowledge investment.
Knowledge Investment
Three simple truths about life are 1) you get a limited number of hours, 2) once an hour passes you cannot get it back, and 3) the only choice you have is what to do with those hours. Combine these with the truth that the ability to gain and apply knowledge is the primary reason humans survive and thrive. In fact, our success in life is largely (though not entirely) a function of the knowledge we gain and apply in the time we have.
So the knowledge you gain and apply has value and produces value; it costs you time to gather and use it, and it decays. If its half-life is short the value produced by knowledge decreases quickly, and you have to reinvest time to replace that value. You are more likely to accumulate value from knowledge that has a long half-life. Therefore, how you spend time to gain and apply short versus long half-life knowledge is an investment decision.
A Strategy
It seems wise, then, to be more deliberate about the balance of knowledge you gain and apply when you have a choice (true, you don’t always have a choice). You need a knowledge investment strategy.
Keep it simple. Regularly (once a month, once a quarter, once a year) consider what you are learning or planning to learn, and categorize it as short or long half-life knowledge. Determine a balance of short vs long half-life that you are happy with, and make choices that are most likely to produce that balance.
You don’t need a fancy methodology or lengthy spreadsheets. Just make it a habit to consider how you invest your time. The value of knowledge is too important to leave to chance.
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