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Concept

tacit knowledge

A bare tree stands on a log against a backdrop of a full moon and scattered stars, symbolizing tacit knowledge.

A term coined by the Hungarian-British chemist and philosopher Michael Polanyi in the late 1950s for skills and judgements a practitioner can reliably deploy but cannot fully verbalise. "We know more than we can tell," he wrote. Examples run from recognising a face, to riding a bicycle, to spotting a defect in a turbine blade. It marks the limit of what can be turned into written instructions.

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