About the design fundamentals of the service Thinkin.

1. .eu
On the Encyclopaedists and “crafting an answer”.

2. People who want results need tools.
Tools have a life-cycle, some tools no longer work.
Most tools are made for a purpose, few for a number of purposes.
Some situations are still in need of good tools.
Complex situations, with a unique set of parameters happen more frequently today.
Knowledge that fits such specific situations and needs to be precise enough to work
most likely will not be found, ready-made.
Let’s see why.

3. What do we learn in school?
The most important and lasting impression is that there is an answer before there is a
question.
Put differently: we learn to re-produce.
When we stray from that norm we call it “creative writing”. Now obviously creative
writing can be pretty impressive. So the issue is not: creative writing.
My point is that we have been taught that when we create our own knowledge in
response to a question we are trained to call it “fiction”. It does not qualify as an
answer.
Sad. And wrong.

4. One brilliant offshoot of the Enlightenment was the movement of the Encyclopaedists.
The underlying idea was that all knowledge could be codified. So that we had one
place where all knowledge could be found.
Then came “Darwin’s dangerous idea”: everything alive evolves.
Which sounds a bit like Heraclites' “Pantha Rei” ?
Reality changes too and therefore knowledge about reality doesn’t just grow. It also
becomes obsolete when that reality has changed.
This means that every specific situation needs a specific answer. All knowledge
checked every time, some thrown out. New knowledge carefully crafted for the
purpose.
Do results-people have a tool for that?
 A book by Daniel Dennett. Funny also that the Encyclopaedia itself was considered ‘dangerous’ even before it was completed.

5. Thinkin is that tool
It brings together the network members you chose on that occasion.
They in turn may suggest other trusted members from their own network that you can
then invite too.
Everyone concentrates on content rather than anything distracting from that.
They all learn from each other and together craft the best possible answer. Which gets
reported to you in actionable form, ranked and all: new knowledge specific to your
situation.

6. A brief note on terms.
Giving an answer. It sounds so simple, what can be wrong with it? Yet it merits closer
scrutiny.
If something does not yet exist, how can you give it?
For the encyclopaedists this was not an issue: they had the book with answers, with
all possible knowledge. They could “give” answers.
Today we first have to put the specific answer together. Craft it, as it were. Carefully
crafted if possible.
So, “giving an answer” will always be preceded by “crafting an answer”. Specific to
your situation, here, now.
The expression “Can you craft me an answer?” will take a while to take off.

7. And then the fun started
When we had designed and build Thinkin we found out there is more you can do with
it.
See, knowledge is a collection of specific elements. It expresses a view of the world as
those who made that knowledge see it now.
So that sounds quite a bit like “opinion”?
And it sounds also like a vision, if you swap “now” for “the future”.
But more about that next time. Meanwhile have enjoy your crafting.