The Great Knowledge Gap: Are We Swapping Expertise for "Received Wisdom"?
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the landscape of professional knowledge, particularly in the IT consulting sector—the environment I know best. While AI is undeniably a powerful tool, I believe it is creating a widening Knowledge Gap. To explain this, I distinguish between two types of knowledge: "Researched Information" and "Received Information." Here is why this distinction matters, and why we need to talk about it. The Era of "Researched Information" Not long ago, if a consultant or IT professional needed to solve a complex problem or map out a project, the process was manual and rigorous. We had to dig through documentation, scour forums, and read technical blogs to find a scenario that mirrored our own. This required effort. Crucially, it forced us to understand the context. To find the answer, you had to understand the question, the variables, and the potential consequences of every configuration. This f...