Three Kinds of Knowledge Interchange in Socionics

These general models of sharing knowledge apply to any field of knowledge or skill.

1. "Forum": Each person does his own study and shares his personal views and findings with others.
Pros: Free interchange of ideas. Free discussion of possible routes of inquiry. Generation of ideas.
Cons: Problems of semantics and accurately conveying personal experience to others. Difficult to judge quality or validity of individuals' research. Very difficult to unify individuals' experience into a single system.

2. "Tutelage": Someone temporarily suspends his independent study to absorb the experience and thinking of another.
Pros: Most effective for learning quickly and thoroughly. Key non-verbal information can be conveyed.
Cons: Difficult to judge the quality of the teacher's system beforehand. Requires faith in teacher (initially).

3. "Research Teams": People form task-oriented teams to work on a problem or area together. Group results and methodology are shared with others.
Pros: Semantic problems are overcome (within team, at least). Greatest chance of obtaining results that can be formulated objectively.
Cons: Material interest usually required to motivate team.