Hey there, have any of you ever struggled with taking and managing notes, collecting information, and curating information so that it creates not only insights and actionable agenda items but also lasting assets—not just for the company but for you personally? If you're like me, you have—I have struggled with this most of my life, but in recent years, I’ve gotten the struggle, mostly, under control.

Please share your experiences: I’d love to hear about some of the personal and professional knowledge management challenges you’ve faced and how you've overcome them. What frameworks and tools for thought have you adopted? Please comment here, reach out, and connect with me.

How has it gotten better for me?

First, I am a perpetual learner—a student. I actively participate in communities like the Startup Marketer (SUM), Internet Identity Workshop (IIW), Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), Tinderbox Forum, and others. I use these communities, my sanghas, to get exposed to insights and to encounter teachers. I engage in wisdom-based learning, i.e., learning from those who have been there and done that. 

Secondly, I wholeheartedly embrace the adage: “If you want to learn something, teach it.” Teaching has always held a special place in my life, but I’ve often wrestled with a stigma that diminishes its value. There’s a pervasive notion that while important, teaching is somehow less worthy of investment or recognition than “doing.” This idea suggests that teaching must be a sacrifice, a fallback, or a lesser pursuit.

I believe this stigma is rooted, in part, not only in how poorly we pay and support our teachers (at all levels in all environments) but also in the infamous quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw from Man and Superman (1903):

“He who can, does. He who cannot teaches.” For years, this sentiment had left me feeling defeated, as though teaching was something to be ashamed of or an admission of inadequacy. Recently, however, I decided to reclaim my perspective and take agency over this narrative. I’ve reframed Shaw’s words to reflect my belief in the transformative power of teaching:

“He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. But those who truly want to make a difference in this world do both.”

Teaching is not a fallback—it’s a calling. It’s a way to inspire, empower, and amplify impact. The lens of teaching provides us with a framework to help us help others, help ourselves, and, in turn, make a difference: to realize goals, objectives and dreams. I see teaching as an integral part of “doing,” and I take pride in the opportunity to shape lives across all in-person, hybrid, and virtual environments—in the boardroom, office, meeting, committee meetup, conference and unconference, workshop, and yes, in the classroom—while continuing to learn and grow myself.

Teaching: 5Cs of Knowlege Management, SSI ID & Private Data, Marketing, Cybersecurity & Privacy

The drive to make a difference in the world gets me up daily.

I advise (teach) and do (consult+teach) on organizational and individual business and marketing strategy, self-sovereign (SSI) identity (ID) and private data management, cybersecurity and privacy, AI Agents, and personal knowledge management. I teach in industry, community, and academic settings.

The latter area of interest, personal knowledge management, is the crux of my post today.

As noted, I've struggled with personal knowledge management for most of my life and have been searching for insights and skills to improve. In 2020, I finally landed in a community—Tinderbox Forum—a community I originally discovered in 2009 but did not understand until 2020. Participating in this community has helped me tame my personal knowledge management struggles. It has helped me turn my struggles into sources of power. Through this community, I have learned, developed skills, nurtured friends, and have had an opportunity to make a difference (both in and out of the community).

Through the Tinderbox Forum and the kindness of others, I’ve moderated hundreds of weekly meetups) on personal knowledge management and tools for thought.

Combining what I’ve learned from these meetups and my past experiences, I started to frame an approach to personal knowledge management: The 5Cs of Personal Knowledge Management (Collection, Curation, Creation, Collaboration, and Contribution). In fact, back in September, I gave a talk for SUM: 5Cs of Personal Knowledge Management to Unleash Your Creative Potential. I have also started to teach the approach and how to use Tinderbox—the most powerful tool suite for knowledge management I’ve ever encountered.

The 5Cs is not a traditional knowledge management approach, nor does it rely on a single tool. Instead, it is a thinking, insight, and value-creation framework. You can use it for any number of projects and with many tools (I have my preferred ones). With it, I’ve learned to 1) embrace the power of metacognition and incremental formalization, 2) collect and curate knowledge assets and thoughts, 3) take notes (in meetings, in workshops, in classes), 4) write (e.g., business and marketing plans, social media posts, articles, whitepapers, websites, books, resumes, theses, dissertations, etc.), 5) manage contacts lists, sales pipelines, 6) research (with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed), 7) learn the many languages of computing, the Internet, and AI, 8) build reusable assets, and so much more. It is as much a new way of seeing the world, thinking, and acting on information as it is a set of tools to choose from, adopt, and use. 

What’s Next

Going into 2025, in addition to my ID & Data, business strategy and marketing work, I’m committed to sharing what I’ve been learning and teaching about personal knowledge management and how critically important it will be for each of us to learn.

Why is it critical? I think it is because personal knowledge management is and will be foundational. that it is and will be the connective glue at the intersection of my other interests, namely the movements that are transforming our personal, social, civic, and commercial lives: 1) organizational and individual business & marketing strategy, 2) SSI ID and private data management, and 3) cybersecurity & privacy.

To this end, I’ve launched the school of the 5Cs of Personal Knowledge Management alongside my identity and data advisory and consultancy efforts. I’m starting small right now (cohort #2); just one class has been published, but it will grow. I’d love to have you in one or more classes someday. 🙂

Let’s Start With a Conversation

Let’s start with a conversation.

Again, I'd love to hear about some of the personal and professional knowledge management challenges you’ve faced and how you've overcome them. I’d also like to talk to you about the future of self-sovereign identity and data, cybersecurity and privacy, and how you see all these intersecting streams transforming society’s social, civic, and commercial fabric, your job and career, and your personal life.

The changes will have a far-reaching impact. The changes are already happening, even if we haven’t recognized them.

#5CsofKnowledgeManagement #BernardShaw #ManandSuperman #PersonalKnowledgeManagment #PrivateData #SelfSovereignIdentity #SnagIt #Teaching #Tinderbox #ToolsforThought #WinterFest2024 #Zotero @Bare Bones Software @DEVONtechnologies @Houda @Internet Identity Workshop @Mobile Ecosystem Forum @Obsidian @Text Expander @TextSniper @The StartUp Marketer @Mark Bernstein