Game theory has a lesser-known concept called 'common knowledge' — not just knowing something, but knowing that others know it, and knowing that they know you know it. The philosopher David Lewis built a whole theory of social conventions on this recursive structure. What's underappreciated is how much career momentum operates the same way: it's not enough to have done the work; the right people must know you've done it, and you must know they know, so that a shared reality gets established. Without that loop closing, effort stays invisible — not because no one is paying attention, but because the convention of your capability was never jointly ratified. The practical move isn't self-promotion in the shallow sense. It's deliberately creating the moments — a well-placed debrief, a written summary sent upward, a question asked in the room where decisions happen — where your work enters shared knowledge rather than remaining privately held.

What did you accomplish in the last month that the people who should know about it... don't?

Drawing from Analytic Philosophy / Game Theory (Convention Theory) — David Lewis