Knowledge Graphs: Ontology in plain English

Knowledge Graphs: Ontology in plain English (translation from Russian Telegram post by Prapion Medvedeva)

When building complex information systems or walking through life in general, we constantly assign types to everything we or others talk about.

A high-level ontology defines the types of entities.

Suppose we assign an entity to the wrong type. In that case, we are constantly trying to do the wrong kind of activity or operations with this entity and feel the entity doesn’t fit into the action — “square peg in a round hole”.

Look at the “problems” or “challenges”:

1. I have a problem or challenge

2. I create a strategy for the solution

3. I shape requirements for the solution

4. I build a specific plan for the solution

5. Execute the plan for the solution

Each of the actions is a different entity type.

If you mix those (the thing you are thinking about is of the wrong type) in improving your life, you will have a mismatch of goals or actions or feelings of not optimal activities.

When they often meet a feeling of discomfort — for example, no joy at work, they say: the problem is “I need to change the job”. That’s mismatch “I need to change work” is a type of “solution strategy”, when the problem is “I don’t enjoy my work”.

But because human decided that “the problem” is to change employment, they only look for solutions within the framework of changing employment.

It may be better or more optimal not to change the work, but have a break, take a holiday, and improve communication with colleagues or watch “Jedi Techniques for Problem solving”. Because we never analysed the real problem, we selected the wrong type for our actions.

Do you want to try?

Select the latest ten inconveniences, write them down and assign types from the list above.