There are two types of knowledge

?**PS: This is an internal weekly email I send out to all our team, talking about topics that are relevant and important to us

I was watching a TED talk that speaks about learning and acquiring knowledge. I wanted to share some of these learnings with you. 

- The quest for knowledge is the oldest and most sacred one for humans. All prophets to humanity were bearers of knowledge that the people didn't have. 

- There are two types of knowledge people can acquire: Vertical and Horizontal. 

- Vertical knowledge is deepening our understanding of a topic we are already aware of. Horizontal knowledge is expanding our horizons to new topics. 

- The people who have a preference to acquire Vertical knowledge are often Specialists, the people who have a preference of acquiring Horizontal knowledge are often Generalists

- Vertical knowledge strengthens connections that have already been made between neurons in our brains, Horizontal knowledge creates new connections and paths between neurons. If you're into Neural Networks you will understand this easily. 

- While many people spend their lifetimes acquiring vertical knowledge on their quests of becoming specialists, studies show that acquiring horizontal knowledge can actually make you smarter because you are creating new connections in your brain and developing areas that weren't previously developed in your mind. 

- Horizontal knowledge can be anything, learning a new language, learning the piano, playing a new sport, writing stories, it can literally be anything. 

- Vertical knowledge is the primary reason behind all progress in the world, as specialists push the limits of their domains farther and farther, new knowledge is created, and those domains grow and expand as a result. 

- The most successful people in the world are the ones who are able to do both: invest in acquiring deeper knowledge of a domain they specialize in (vertical) but they also actively pursue new knowledge in diverse, and seemingly unrelated domains (horizontal). 

- The effect of this combination to a human mind is amazing, as it literally fires up all your neurons.

Personally, I'm more of a "Generalist" myself. And my role doesn't make it easier for me to specialize in a specific function since I work across very different functions everyday. I need to know something about everything, and maybe more about some things than others. 

If you can answer this question everyday, you will become an incredible person. 

I make it a priority to build our company's culture around learning, and sharing knowledge.  

Whether it's our Cogni-Chat, our Study Groups, our Academy Sessions, or any of the other initiatives we start at Cognitev...they all have knowledge acquisition at their heart. 

While all of you are specialists in your domains and invest a lot in that, please don't ignore the importance of "horizontal" knowledge, and the wonders it can do to your brain and to you as a person.

We should all be deeply aware of the importance of learning to us as humans, and if there is one question we should ask ourselves everyday when we're on bed before going to sleep it should be: "What is one thing I learned today that I didn't know yesterday?"

-- Moustafa