> In one sentence, how do you define "knowledge"?In view of "it is not the smartest or the strongest species that prevails, but that which is most adaptive", I have a one word definition for knowledge  -- acumen.And if you wanted "acumen" expanded it is : sharpening one’s intuition (aka sense-making apparatus) [1] so that it energises [2] one to take the most effective actions [3] of a rainbow [4] of possible actions, in a diverse environment [5]Notes:-[1] (a) Why do I highlight sense-making apparatus -- that which we use to connect the dots? I have gone through life from being one who was unwittingly overwhelmed by inferiority complex, as is the case with nearly every non-first world born (and many first-world borns as well), to being through the lessons of repeated excruciating pain and post-pain "why me" and reflection. Reflection on my how my intuition, my sense-making framework works, researching histories of the Asian and other minds. Synthesising mental evolution from cave man days up to now. Including paleopsychology with my genius friend, author of "Global Brain", Howard Bloom. l went to numerous motivational and behavioural change events (eg Anthony Robbins' The Firewalk Experience). I worked and lived in many Eastern and Western countries. I hung out with rich folks, beggars and hitch-hikers. (Hitch-hiked through 34 of the 50 US States right after university). I engaged with tens of thousands of Asians thanks to the online world and my persistence in doing so. I wanted to uncover the root cause of turmoil especially prevalent indecisiveness, neurosis and denial and being puzzled at how impossible it was to make sense of the world. Yet we do not see this level of turmoil amongst the other beings in Nature. We don't see the levels of indecisiveness, neurosis and denial among ants or birds or tigers or elephants.The root cause, I identified and which is increasingly being grasped rapidly by heavy-duty thinkers and quick enough by others who get it contextualised, is the ruptured intuition (sense-making framework) of Asians, Africans and most indigenous folks. From Expecting Roses, Thorns & In-Betweens To Expecting Roses, Denying Thorns....Have you noticed how you can rate societies and individuals on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 = very subjective and 100 = very objective on levels of expectation, disappointment and denial?Is it possible that the expectations of Asians at one time was  roses, thorns and in-betweens. And thus they found roses, thorns and in-betweens? More objective?And somewhere in history we switched to expecting roses? When you expect all roses, your senses are trained onto finding thorns. You become conditioned to picking the thorns of new ideas. And very few if any ideas pass your test. You also get disappointed more because your expectations are default higher than what happens. And when the thorns are in you, you deny the thorns. What is odd is that we end up choosing the lesser evil/greater good than the incumbent we have. That is we swap a better rosebush for the rosebush in hand. But our perception and reception looks for snow-white and angels and finds dark spots and thorns and thus we lose many opportunities.  Why not be more conscious of that which we subconsciously do anyway and have our minds to be more congruent effective machines?This behaviour has the level of harmony in society to slide down. Like a fish does not know water, we don't even realise most of this because it is pervasive and subconscious.When might this have happened? Asia minus Japan has not produced a single quantum invention ** since 1400 AD -- the times of Admiral Zheng He. India much earlier.Is it possible that the timing of Asia minus Japan stopping production of quantum inventions also coincides with its shift from naturalism to a large dose of polarism over its naturalism?Has Oil And Water Been Force-Mixed?It is as if Asian minds sit on a substrate of naturalism and are overwhelmed by polarism (ditheism). And the Western mind sits on a substrate of polarism but thanks to science and stronger mother-tongue, thus stronger non-silo cognitive skills, have evolved to naturalism. Net net, the Western mind is more naturalistic that the Asian mind.  It appears to me that science and Eastern religions (eg Zen, Sufi Islam, pre-Vedic Hinduism, Buddhism and even much of Gnostic Christianity and practical Judaism) seem to affirm the naturalism, diversity and patterns of Nature. And that most Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and Zorastrianism/Vedism as they are mostly currently interpreted (eg Bush’s or Bin Laden’s God Vs Devil") pushes us to polarism and become blind to the "flowing, spherical, swivelling and wavy" patterns in Nature and human phenomena. And the English language unless understood as used by native speakers (which means savvy with nuances, idioms and metaphors which mostly get their essence from Nature examples), provides no choice but polarism.My synthesis, "Why Is Common Sense So Uncommon?" ,  "Ecosystems Thinking For Mind Ecosystems"  and "Turning Problems Into Money: How?" has put me and nearly everybody else I run into, in particular Asians, Africans or indigenous  into much more of  snug mental congruence. Once they understand it, it is self-evident. It is common sense to us.  I am trying to find someone to illustrate the image encapsulates these insights – one that I can describe face-to-face but not in writing too well. An image that explains vividly the impact of the default linear and single-order nature of the English language upon Asian minds as contrasted with a default multi-dimensional multiple-order (i.e. including higher orders) level langage. Over-oversimplified to give a speck of the image in my mind – default a sphere in motion rather than the current "still straight line" default. Default continuums rather than poles.And this impact of the English language is not just upon those who speak the English language. It is also upon those who don't because the English language is the language of the ruling machinery, structures, processes. Further, Asian mother-tongues have been tainted by polarism. It is in our proverbs where I sense reinforcement of our naturalistic ethos.Dr Arthur Janov’s book, "Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis" has been a very insightful source too in me arriving at this mental congruence level. It provides clinical proof of why most of us, and very much more so Asians, Africans and indigenous, lose the curiousity and fascination we have as children. And what to do about it.  The reason: our parents. But don’t blame your parents because they got it from their parents and on and on. And I have approximately tracked it down to when it might have started (b) The more incoherent our sense-making framework, the more we hear, listen and see only what we want to hear, listen and see -- the less objective we are, the more default friction there is in that community. And if others in our community also do that, there will be a larger gap between our perception of reality and their perception of reality over a cross-section of contentious issues. Thus fostering  social capital (trust etc) becomes an expensive proposition. Thus societies that grasp and solve this would have a competitive lead over societies that do not grasp or are in denial of this state of affairs.[2] I put the word "energises" here in particular to differentiate myself with the large number of academicish folks whose knowledge does not energise them because while they talk about bounded rationality, I have found that it is bounded irrationality. It is as if they pick up some silo knowledge that sits upon a heavy foundation of irrationality but delude themselves (as I did up to some years ago) that they are rational. It is this irrationality that has nearly all in Asian societies, for example to in one breath say "he won’t be a good businessman..he won’t be able to take risks because he went to university" and amazingly take that as the only possible state. Instead of saying "wait a minute here -– of how much use is a university if it dulls the risk-taking capacity of a mind? Why does it do that? Can’t we fix this problem? What is the cost of losing our risk-taking capacity? How many less jobs will be created? How many innovations will be stifled? How many gifted will be suppressed? What is the cost of this in mental health terms? And if mental health is the father of all other health, financial health included, what is the cost of it? And if there is reduced wealth in a society, what does that do for crime levels? All else being equal, the poorer a society is, the greater the need to steal, no? And just because estimating this precisely may not be possible, should we let those who tinker at the edges instead of focusing on the core, rule the agenda and put this issue into the background? Instead of ballparking our way to better and better estimates?[3] To me knowledge has to be default actionable knowledge [4] Rainbow because much of our actions is sub-par because we simply are pre-disposed against imagination, or are not exposed enough to the imaginative to grasp that there are many many more possibilities. A good example, is the whole range of possibilities that is unearthed by getting into the bowels of what levers are. What are levers? Click on the link while recalling Archimedes: Give me long enough of a lever and a place to stand and I’ll singled handedly lift the Earth. [5] "Diverse" because I realise that for heaps more big-picture-to-small-picture cause-effect relationships to be  sensed and calibrated, it requires co-cognitive unlike minds to spark it off. Ideally co-cognitive unlike minds or at least unlike minds. Otherwise, there is too much danger of "stagnant ponds" and groupthink. "Diverse" is also needed to overcome the "fish does not know water" or "a man who loses his legs is more aware of steps than one with legs" phenomena. Bottom line: we are not aware of our environment. We are aware of our last environment, when either we or the environment changes. This Marshall McLuhanism has been most insightful for me – it has become a lever for accelerated insentience-piercing[**Quantum invention = significant leap in order of problem solving from cave man days up to now eg taming of fire, domestication of rice, discovery of zero, invention of language, urban structures, paper, gunpowder, printing press, trains, cars, electricity, credit cards, computers etc.]I need to polish this thought sculpture so it is clearer. I'll do that as we go along.I posted an earlier version of this at what I sense is the best Knowledge Management community in the world -- see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/act-km/messagescheers../balaBala Pillai  bala@apic.netKnowledge Economy Brands-in-the-making (since 1995)Knowledge Management + Social Networks + Citizen Journalism + Complementary Currency