Metaphor as Knowledge Bridge
Metaphor is not merely a thinking process, it is the primary mechanism for converting tacit knowledge into explicit form.
Metaphor works by holding two contradictory concepts in creative tension. When Honda called a new car concept “Tall Boy” or Matsushita’s bread machine team referenced “twisting stretch” dough kneading, these weren’t decorations on technical specifications. They were the specifications, in the only form that could capture what engineers tacitly knew but couldn’t formally express.
The metaphor-analogy-model sequence:
- Metaphor creates intuitive connections through imagery (high abstraction, low logic)
- Analogy resolves contradictions and highlights structural similarities
- Model translates analogies into consistent, logical frameworks
This sequence is how tacit knowledge becomes explicit. The path runs from image to logic, from intuition to system. Skip the metaphor and you lose access to the tacit knowledge that makes concepts genuinely new.
Related: 06-atom—externalization-mode, 06-atom—tacit-knowledge-definition