Source note · Independent commentary
The part of expertise that cannot be written down
It gives a careful vocabulary for the part of skill that shows up as noticing and timing rather than as rules, which is exactly the part a tool's output does not display.
Research reviewed
The Tacit Dimension
- Authors
- Michael Polanyi
- Publication
- University of Chicago Press (originally Doubleday, 1966)
- Date
- 1966
- Type
- Book
A short philosophical work arguing that a great deal of human knowledge cannot be fully put into words: people know more than they are able to articulate, and skilled practice depends on that unstated knowledge.
Read the original sourceEvidence
What the source supports
- The claim that skilled practice includes knowledge the practitioner cannot fully articulate.
- The observation that explicit rules never capture the whole of a skill.
Boundary
What the source does not support
- Any claim about artificial intelligence, which the book predates by decades in its modern form.
- The claim that tacit knowledge cannot be imitated in output. Polanyi is describing knowing, not the reproducibility of results.
Interpretation
What Sougata is doing with it
Sougata uses Polanyi for one reason: if a practitioner usually knows more than they have said out loud, then writing a method down is how you find out which parts you had never actually stated. That is why the Second Door Plan has a Build step. Polanyi says nothing about AI and nothing about this method, and the book is not evidence that human judgment is safe from anything. Applying his vocabulary here is Sougata's extension and should be read as interpretation.
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Why it matters here