How You Know You’re New Here

Contrary to some
Sociology,
It is the idea

Of the explicit
That’s parasitic
Upon the idea

Of the tacit.
Awareness trucks
In knowledge that’s tacit,

While explicit
Algorithms can
Only intimate

Explicit knowledge
And statistical
Patterns of tacit.

The deeply buried
Feel for exceptions
Evades the rule-bound.

Without exceptions,
You can’t make meanings,
And without meanings

You can’t be yourself,
Since making meanings
Is how you’re yourself.

Move around a room
Or go for a stroll
Somewhere new to you.

As you pause, blinking
In the light, only
Tacit knowledge might

Help you orient.
A device can say
You are here. Only

You can say what here
Means to where you’ve been,
Which means who you’ve been.