Folklore

Folklore, tribal knowledge.  Happens all the time at work - a certain method, something we do for one product and not another, something we all "know" about a customer.  Tribal knowledge.  It's not written down (at least somewhere you can find), it's passed down from one person to another - one operator, engineer, salesman.

Sometimes the story grows, a little bit added each time.  Until it becomes more legend than real and loses any effectiveness.  Or it goes the other way, ignored.  And unless it gets written down, someday the storytelling ends and it's lost forever.  But even then, the written version never seems as good as the telling.

I met an old friend for the first time.  Which sounds weird, but I went hiking Saturday with Julie. She writes a blog (or better stated the blog) about hiking Sleeping Giant, http://hikeagiant2.wordpress.com.  I Googled Sleeping Giant Trails when I started hiking again this spring and her blog came up.  And since then, we’ve been writing and commenting back and forth.  So it was great to finally meet her and put a face to the words.  Her blog is a super resource for anything on the Giant – from hikes along every trail, to the history and the interesting sites you have to see but aren’t shown on any trail map. 

There are at least a couple of books out that detail the history of the mountain and park.  Better yet, the Sleeping Giant Park Association runs a “History of the Giant” hike.  Better because you read about it, but just can't visualize it until you're on the mountain.  I saw that again on Saturday - hunting down the eyebolts on the chest to see where Cedarhurst was built, looking across from the Chest to the Chin trying to picture where the Cook cottage was built, tracing out the foundation of the Stone House; some things are just better in the telling.

Tribal knowledge - Keep sharing the stories.  Google doesn't have everything yet.