如果我们将一个人的知识绘制成地图，它就像存的大海洋里的一群小岛屿，还有珊瑚礁陪同着。海洋的浩瀚无边代表着他所不认识的领域。像填海造岛的过程一样，有些人的知识的岛屿随着年龄的增长，面积会扩增，尽管速度可能会变慢。 普遍上珊瑚礁也在扩增。 不管珊瑚礁有多大，它们不是岛屿 – 退潮时出现，涨潮时被淹没。
大多数人没有足够的桥梁和海堤连接他们的知识的岛屿 – 这意味着他们不能完全将他们碎片化的知识联系起来。
小部分人拥有更大的知识的岛屿总面积，并且有许多桥梁和海堤连接着他们的知识岛，尽管仍有一些孤立的岛屿，但是岛屿总面积仍然无法与广袤的海洋相比。
（图片：网络里的阿联酋迪拜的世界群岛）
If we were to map out the knowledge of an individual, it would be like tiny islands in a vast and boundless ocean, which is unknown to him. Accompanying these islands are reefs. The islands of knowledge of some people grow like the process of reclamation as they age, though the speed may slow. Most often reefs also grows. Reefs being reefs are not islands, no matter how large they are. They appear at low tides but are submerged at high tides.
Most people do not have enough bridges and causeways linking their knowledge islands – meaning they cannot completely relate their fragmented knowledge fields to another.
A small fraction of people have a bigger combined area of knowledge islands and have many bridges and causeways linking their knowledge islands, though some islands may remain isolated and the land area is still incomparable to the vast ocean.
(Picture: World Islands of Dubai, UAE obtained from Internet)