In the first part of this series, we covered the universal framework of sensemaking and how we can apply it using the 3-part Knowledge Cycle: Collect, Connect, and Create. No matter what you are trying to accomplish, being better at the Knowledge Cycle will give you better results. In this part, we will focus on where you are most likely getting stuck: the transition points.

Things we secretly think but never say out loud:

These notes I'm taking are great!

And yet, how often do those notes get lost? Buried? Forgotten? How do you feel when you find an old note that once sparked so much excitement in you, but now is just a reminder of your inability to convert that excitement into ANYTHING?

Yes, "the faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory", but you had higher hopes for your note. So what happened?

You got stuck.

The most common sticking point is the gap between Collecting a new spark or idea and Connecting it to what you already know. This is where the pain creeps in again. But there is a shockingly simple solution. And if you can consistently get to Connecting, it starts to feel like magic.

And you can get there in a single word...

From Spark to Remark

In terms of The Knowledge Cycle, how do we bridge the gap between Collecting something new and Connecting it to something known? Let's put this another way: How do we go from spark to remark?

The "Spark to Remark" gap is the first major sticking point of knowledging. The other is going from Remark to Remarkable: the gap between connecting ideas and creating something shareable with them (we'll cover this below).

When I was sitting behind super-talented editors and assistant editors, I scribbled notes as fast as I could (COLLECT). They were not talking. This wasn't a lecture. They were working. It was up to me to find the clues of their success. I felt more like Sherlock Holmes than a bored college student. At first, all I could do was collect brand new ideas and sparks. But after only a couple days, I was able to start CONNECTING new sparks with the stuff I already knew. That's when it everything came alive. That's when I was able to find Flow.

It came alive because...I started saying because!

I would sit there on the couch and see how Skip removed a couple frames from an action scene and say to myself, "That's interesting, because...it gives more impact to the moment."

Over the following months, I did variations of that thousands of times. I found something interesting (COLLECT) and immediately tethered it to something else (CONNECT). And the keyword was "because".

Because is the bridge from spark to remark.

The problem isn't your note-taking. It's your note-making. Which leads us to the next Rule of Ideas:

The best way to collect, is to connect.

This will get you unstuck 50% of the time. But there is another gap we struggle to cross.

From Remark to Remarkable

Being remarkable, simply means your stuff can be remarked about. That means you need to somehow take all of the gobbly-goop you've collected and connected—and you need to create something out of it that can be remarked about (even if it's only remarks to yourself).

It doesn't have to be your magnum opus. In fact, think about how you can lower the bar and make the creating process as easy and rewarding as possible.

Here's what I did when I was learning the craft of TV editing. After my note-taking (COLLECT) and my note-making (CONNECT), I started practicing (CREATE).

I arrived early and hopped on an assistant editor's machine. I tried doing their work. I cut dailies. I added sound to a scene. And I tried cutting the same scenes the editor received.

Everything I did was remarkable. That doesn't mean it was good. It just means they could remark about it. That made all the difference. Because now I could COLLECT feedback. Oh what a glorious Knowledge Cycle that became!

The key for me was bridging the gap between making CONNECTIONS to making CREATIONS.

The solution is to move your work to the medium of your expression. I had to move my butt into the editor's chair and practice doing the work in the exact medium of expression: the edit.

Think about this article. I wrote 95% of it in Obsidian—my custom knowledging space. But for the last 5%, I had to move to the medium. The medium for this article is this website.

This is the next rule of ideas: The best way to create is to connect your work to the medium of your expression.

The best way to create, is to connect.

This will get you unstuck another 30% of the time.

If you're wondering about the missing 20%, that's where you restart the Knowledge Cycle by COLLECTING new feedback and re-CONNECTING new insights.

The best way to work, is to connect

We just covered two Rules of Ideas:

• The best way to collect, is to connect.
• The best way to create, is to connect.

So the best thing that we can be doing in our knowledging is to connect.

Why is connecting so powerful? Because when you connect two ideas, you form a relationship. This whole thing that we're doing—managing knowledge or "Knowledging"—is based on relationships—not between people, but between ideas.

Now you may be asking, what's the best way to connect? That brings us the final rules to cover in this article (which we secretly already covered):

The best way to connect, is to comment.
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And...
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The best way to comment, is to say because.

You don't need anything to become a Because Person. All you have to do is start saying it.

Good luck!