In his book, Never Stop Learning, Bradley Staats describes eight elements that make up ‘dynamic learning’. Here are the highlights from a Knowledge at Wharton interview.

1. “a willingness to try things, have them not work out, but learn from that and move on”
2. “if we don’t focus on the process, we’re never going to get to a good spot”
3. “we should be pulling ourselves back to ask questions”
4. “taking time to reflect and to think”
5. “Recognize this need to not be a poor imitation of others, but to be ourselves to learn”
6. “we need to play to our strengths”
7. specialization & variety — “we have a depth of knowledge in certain topics” but “we’re also willing to appreciate breadth”
8. “Others educate us and provide valuable knowledge”

As Staats describes WHAT we need to do, personal knowledge mastery is a framework that describes HOW to never stop learning. For example, here is how François Lavallée describes his personal process.

Here is my personal twist on PKM.
1 – I have to clearly state that the course has had a profound impact on the way I treat information.
2 – I admit it : I am not at all disciplined
3 – It works anyway!!!

PKM made me realize that infobesity afflicts us all unless we take control of the constant flow of information around us.

The way I deal with it , thanks to the PKM workshop , is to care for my network.
My network will provide me with relevant information , at the right time ( and frequently a bit before the shit hits the fan!) or when I request it.
I ceased to try to keep track of everything and the FOMO [fear of missing out] just went away.
This alone was worth the effort of taking the workshop (which I did diligently enough for the whole 6 weeks).
And then, the fact that I use twitter sporadically stopped being shameful. Same thing with LinkedIn.
PKM allowed me to better define my needs.”

In PKM in Action: Part 1 & Part 2 I gave several examples of individual practices. They are all different yet they all adhere to some or all of Staats’s elements. Here are some of my thoughts and resources on each of his eight elements.

1. perpetual beta
2. a framework is a foundation to build upon: Seek > Sense > Share
3. as work gets automated, it’s up to us to ask the difficult questions
4. sparks of brilliance often come from reflection
5. real learning is not abstract, it is personal — and may be painful — choose wisely
6. understanding our strengths, we don’t learn for school but for life
7. a neo-generalist is somewhere between a polymath and a hyper-specialist
8. in order to work collaboratively, we have to learn cooperatively