Understanding Your Circle of Competence: The Key to Success and Collective Sensemaking

Understanding Your Circle of Competence: The Key to Success and Collective Sensemaking

In the pursuit of success, whether in business or in life, it is crucial to understand your circle of competence. This concept, popularized by legendary investor Warren Buffett, helps individuals avoid problems, identify opportunities for improvement, and learn from others. The idea behind the circle of competence is simple: each of us, through experience or study, has built up useful knowledge in certain areas of the world. The size of that circle is not as important as knowing its boundaries.

Tom Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, once said, "I'm no genius. I'm smart in spots - but I stay around those spots." This quote perfectly encapsulates the importance of focusing on your strengths and playing within your own circle of competence. If you engage in activities or ventures where others have the aptitudes and you don't, you are setting yourself up for failure. It is crucial to figure out where your own edge lies and operate within that realm.

But how does the concept of the circle of competence relate to collective sensemaking and the quest for knowledge?

In a recent paper titled "From Users to (Sense)Makers: On the Pivotal Role of Stigmergic Social Annotation in the Quest for Collective Sensemaking," the authors propose a socio-technical framework called Open Source Attention (OSA). Inspired by decentralization and open source software movements, OSA aims to "free" human attention from control by platforms by creating a decentralized ecosystem for stigmergic markers - the digital traces of human attention.

In the current platform-centric ecology, user annotations such as likes and retweets are locked across platforms' data silos, where they serve to optimize platform growth. OSA seeks to empower maker-centric ecologies by employing distributed content creation and storage technology. The concept of stigmergic communication is central to this framework, where the environment acts as a distributed memory, and modifications left by others provide cybernetic feedback, driving emergence of novel system-level behavior.

The authors distinguish between two types of modifications in stigmergic communication. Sematectonic stigmergy directly alters the environment state, while stigmergic markers serve as signaling cues without directly modifying content. These markers can be thought of as valuable resources, indicating epistemic value and serving both extractive (e.g., ad-tech) and constructive (e.g., collective sensemaking) purposes.

The OSA framework aims to "free" stigmergic markers, starting with basic hypertext primitives such as emotional valence (likes), bi-directional links, span highlighting, semantic categorization (tags, bookmarks), and textual annotation. By introducing interoperable protocols and storage for these stigmergic primitives, data from diverse personal knowledge management (PKM) apps can be shared to contribute to collective sensemaking efforts.

But how can individuals apply the concept of the circle of competence and the OSA framework in their own lives?

First and foremost, it is essential to define the perimeter of your circle of competence. Reflect on your experiences, expertise, and areas of knowledge. Identify the boundaries of your strengths and weaknesses. By understanding what you know best, you can focus your efforts on areas where you have an edge, increasing your odds of success.

Secondly, embrace the idea of playing within your circle of competence. Avoid the temptation to venture into areas where others have the aptitudes and you don't. Instead, concentrate on honing your skills and knowledge within your realm of expertise. This intentional focus will allow you to make the most of your talents and increase your chances of achieving your goals.

Lastly, consider the power of collective sensemaking. While it is important to operate within your circle of competence, it is equally important to collaborate with others who have complementary knowledge and expertise. By sharing and exchanging ideas, insights, and stigmergic markers, you can collectively make sense of complex problems and discover innovative solutions.

In conclusion, understanding your circle of competence is not only crucial for individual success but also plays a pivotal role in collective sensemaking. By defining the boundaries of your knowledge, focusing on your strengths, and embracing collaboration, you can navigate the complexities of life and business with greater confidence and effectiveness. So, take the time to reflect on your circle of competence, play within your strengths, and engage in collective sensemaking to unlock new possibilities and achieve your goals.