Beyond the Facts - by James W Cortada (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book describes tacit knowledge, what it is, how it used and its role in our current data driven world. It argues that fuzzy, hard-to describe information is greater and more, important than just hard facts.

Book Synopsis

This book describes tacit knowledge, what it is, how it used and its role in our current data driven world. It argues that fuzzy, hard-to describe information is greater and more, important than just hard facts.

What is tacit knowledge? It is what we might consider knowledge that is unable to be fully communicated; knowledge that we understand implicitly, but it is a bit hard to explain. For example, it is the kind of knowledge one needs to ride a bicycle, but that cannot be described precisely on paper in the way one might be able to explain how to cook a dish. Tacit knowledge is the least understood type of information and one of the most difficult to communicate. Yet there is more tacit knowledge in our lives than the specific facts one can find in a book, on the Internet or in the simple form of a fact. This book is designed to introduce the reader to the concept of tacit knowledge and how to recognize and use it.

This book offers definitions of tacit knowledge and compares the topic to explicit knowledge, then describes how the former is used today. The author argues that both types are used today and explains how one can use both types of knowledge in their lives.

Topics include:
- The role of tacit knowledge in business and government;
- The wide use of Knowledge Management techniques in tacit knowledge and the newly emerging set of ideas quietly spreading in the workplace called Critical Systems Thinking;
- How one can understand and apply tacit knowledge;
- How AI can apply tacit knowledge;
- And more.

This book is essential primer to understanding tacit knowledge, and learning how to use it to your advantage.

Review Quotes

"With Beyond the Facts, Cortada adds to his previous body of work on the history of information, facts and knowledge, this time focusing on the more abstract, but equally significant, concept of tacit knowledge. Cortada uses a mix of personal anecdote and experience from his decades within business and academia, alongside study of an array of published sources, to provide a fresh look at our understandings of "the world of the tacit". In so doing, Beyond the Facts offers a timely and unique perspective on this lesser explored aspect of information scholarship." --Toni Weller, Visiting Research Fellow in History, De Montfort University, UK, and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Information History.

"This book is about tacit knowledge. It is a kind of implicit, how-to knowledge. While we use it every day, and it is invaluable in learning a new skill or in working effectively with others, it is devilishly hard to define and analyze. Philosophers and management scholars have studied it extensively, but their writing is often difficult to follow because of its specialized language and abstruse concepts. The author of this book, who holds a PhD but spent 30 years in business, has read and digested the relevant scholarly literature, and has written about tacit knowledge in understandable language using everyday examples." --William Aspray, Senior Research Fellow, Charles Babbage Institute

"Tacit knowledge, once the domain of a priesthood of philosophers, later captivated psychologists, ethnographers, computer scientists, and managers. Cortada's history of tacit knowledge is insightful and intriguing at every turn. His book is especially vital as AI (neural net) bots-which lack tacit knowledge and data contexts-have moved from labs into our lives." --Jeffrey R. Yost, Director, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota

About the Author

James W. Cortada is a Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. He holds a Ph.D. in modern history and spent nearly 4 decades working at IBM in various sales, managerial, and research positions. His most recent books include Building Blocks of Society: History, Information Ecosystems, and Infrastructures (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), with William Aspray, Authenticity: Understanding Misinformation Through the Study of Heritage Tourism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Evolution Transformed Academic Research. Governments, and Businesses (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), and Today's Facts: Understanding the Current Evolution of Information (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025).