I've been thinking about tacit knowledge recently.

A very concrete example of tacit knowledge that I rub up against on a regular basis is a basic understanding of file types. In the past I have needed to explain to educated and ostensibly computer-literate professionals under the age of 40 that a jpeg is an image, and a PDF is a document, and they're different kinds of entities that aren't freely interchangeable. It's difficult for me to imagine how someone could not know this. I don't recall ever having to learn it. It seems intuitively obvious. (Uh-oh!)

So I wonder if there aren't some massive gains to be had from understanding tacit knowledge more than I do. Some applications:

• Being aware of the things I know which are tacit knowledge, but not common knowledge
• Building environments that impart tacit knowledge, (eg. through well-designed interfaces and clear conceptual models)
• Structuring my own environment so I can more readily take on knowledge without apparent effort
• Imparting useful memes implicitly to the people around me without them noticing

What do you think or know about tacit knowledge, LessWrong? Tell me. It might not be obvious.