We gain knowledge in one of two ways:

1. By creating new knowledge through hypothesis testing
2. Or by spreading knowledge that already exists

This idea — distinguishing between creating and spreading knowledge — is incredibly useful for product managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs. It helps you quickly and cheaply pick the right strategy for almost any situation.

When I’m making a decision, I ask myself:

🤔 “Am I creating new knowledge, or am I working with something someone else has already figured out?”

If it’s new knowledge, I treat it like a hypothesis to test.
If someone else has done it before, I start looking for their insights. A 30-minute call with an expert can save you weeks of experimentation.

For example, you have 20 operations managers and want to improve your average ticket resolution time. Instead of reinventing the wheel:

• Look into best practices from other companies.
• Identify your top performers. Learn what they’re doing differently — and spread that across the team.

You lead 10 product teams across 3 major products:

• Host regular training for PMs, designers, devs, etc.
• Encourage regular knowledge sharing and cross-team learning via mutual Sprint Reviews and similar techniques.

Sure, some businesses are built on newly created knowledge:

• A unique business model
• A breakthrough product idea
• A proprietary technology

But many are built on existing ideas:

• A marketing automation SaaS, like HubSpot but for India
• From Craigslist to TradeMe

Peter Thiel writes about this in Zero to One — his point is:

💡 Great founders aim to create new knowledge, not just repeat what others have done.

His framework:

• Zero to One → creating something truly original
• One to Infinity → scaling something that already exists

The “Zero to One” path has higher risk — but also higher reward. “One to Infinity” is safer, but typically less rewarding.

Even if your startup begins with a big, original idea — a novel product, model, or technology — once the initial hypotheses are validated, your job becomes distributing that knowledge:

• Educating the market about your product
• Learning which segments care about what
• Refining your sales and marketing motions
• Scaling internal processes for growth

So in reality, the day-to-day of business is mostly about spreading existing knowledge.