Organization Creates Information
The creative organization of information creates new information.
The facts don’t change. But arranging them differently reveals different patterns, relationships, and insights. The organization isn’t just a container, it’s generative.
Wurman’s example: a hat-check clerk can arrange hats by arrival time (chronological record), by hat type (reveals something about attendees), by material (shows what’s popular), by cost (indicates economic demographics). Same hats. Different knowledge.
Implication for design: Choosing how to structure information isn’t a neutral act. It determines what questions become answerable, what patterns become visible, what connections become obvious.
Implication for AI systems: The way a knowledge graph is structured determines what can be queried. The way context is organized affects what an LLM can “see.” Organization is upstream of capability.
Related: 02-molecule—five-hat-racks, 06-molecule—knowledge-graph-construction, 02-molecule—taxonomy-design