Pirate’s Code: Sharing Knowledge Without Losing Your Treasure"
How do you handle sharing knowledge and helping others? I’ve been reflecting on this after a conversation about digital workflows and the fear of giving away too much. Here’s the short plain version of my thoughts. For the full story in memorable Pirate talk, read it here: Pirate's Code: The Art of Sharing Knowledge Without Losing Your Treasure.
I heard this quote first from a very nice college of mine (maybe originally by Mark Twain) and since then it's my guiding principle:
"Never argue with dumb people; they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
The conversation that triggered it was about helping others work digitally. My conversation partner was concerned about giving away knowledge for free.
In this case, it was about an amazing small construction company that started a few years ago to embrace digital workflows and has now reached an amazing level of automation and workflows that support their core business. (The secret behind it is that they have people who care and a focus on pragmatic solutions.)
Now, people want to work with them because of it! But they are a little concerned about giving knowledge away. So I came up with these rules/guidelines that I apply to protect myself:
Sounds like a mix of clichés, but I think all of these principles are a good foundation to make our world a better place—starting with yourself.
So how do you handle helping others and sharing knowledge?
Something different is coming......
2 天前A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…! I find out very quickly in a conversation whether a customer truly wants to learn how to do something….Or they just want me to do it for them. I then throttle back on my helpfulness
I think knowledge only attains value once it is used or applied. Until then it's just a checklist or some equivalent. Which is to say, I agree with you!
BIM Manager | WSP | PhD Candidate BIM Marketing | Growing the best BIM brands & businesses on LinkedIn | Maximizing BIM Profit Together
1 周My approach to helping is about balance Simon. I don’t jump str8 into solutions; I create space for people to figure things out. This allows them to develop their own problem-solving skills while I observe how they think and collaborate. Then, I offer guidance - jabs, just enough to keep them moving forward. It’s not just about solving the problem; it’s about understanding how they learn so I can support them better next time
Generalist, BIM inquisitor, IT architect, Power control expert, GIS expert, AI adept.
1 周If this rule worked, then no one would communicate with anyone. You wouldn't communicate with dumber people, and smarter people wouldn't communicate with you, because you would be dumber to them.
Ghost Automation Design Engineer | Indie CAD/BIM software developer | I automate the boring
1 周It seems like open BIM is also open models. If you share a project in Ifc format - you share the posibility to be used, changed, and so on. Maybe we should add licenses to them. But that is just a product. The processes to make it happen may be unique. Where I live, most of the house projects are inspired by the same architectural website. Just because he/they share.