We want knowledge to be like tying a knot or riding a bike. Learn it once, and you have it forever. No maintenance, no revision, no further effort required.
But knowledge is more like a fruit tree. It must be tended, managed, pruned, and given room to grow. Even with proper care, it may not produce, may produce only once, or may produce abundantly.
The one certainty is that if we stop tending it, we cannot expect to keep reaping its benefits.
The world changes. Technology evolves, circumstances shift, and yesterday’s solutions can become tomorrow’s problems. Knowledge that is never challenged, renewed, or adapted eventually loses its value.
We must question our assumptions, learn from experience, share what works, and discard what no longer serves us. Each generation inherits knowledge it did not create, with the responsibility to cultivate it for the next.
Knowledge is not something we simply acquire and keep. It is something we must continually nurture.
Knowledge is cultivated, never completed.