Containers for Knowledge

Information is liquid, and reshapes itself to fit the container. We endlessly reflow knowledge from one container to another in efforts to grasp its truth. Yet the form of the container also affects its function.

A slide deck is not the same as a research paper. A blog post, press release, social media post, all different containers. A website, a video, a book. While the industry is fond of predicting the 'death' of a medium when a new technology for knowledge distribution becomes available, the truth is that humans thirsty for insight and inspiration will gladly add more containers than subtract.

We build new containers when there is the feeling of missing something. Missing on the idea or feeling or grand concept of the author. Classes, lectures, webinars are containers. So too are comics, zines, movies, music, games.

An illustration is beautiful not because it looks nice next to an article, but because it adds a lens for seeing. A soundtrack doesn't fill silence, it creates an entire mood and space to inhabit.

LLMs are the container we have crafted that is closest to the native liquid nature of raw information. Its flow is innately a firehose. Give it some containers and it will gladly reflow.