We need to cultivate 4 different ways of knowing, and the ability to switch between them seemlessly as needed. This is rather like the "four humors" theory in medieval medicine, hence the 4 Humors of Design Thinking.

• epistêmê – abstract, conceptual, generalizations;
• téchnê – practical know-how;
• phronesis – wisdom underpinned by morality;
• mètis – tactical, adaptive, context-sensitive.

Consider this case from ordinary problem solving, of not combining the forms of knowledge well:

1. I've got a damaged bolt in the terminal on my motorcycle battery, and I now cannot undo it.
2. My technical knowledge (téchnê) is poor, and I don't really understand the process needed to use the tools I have.
3. So I end up finding a trick to get it out, I use a different tool to grind ridges into the head of the bolt and then a hammer and chisel loosens it (mètis).
4. Hooray! It's out. But then I realise that in hammering the battery I might have damaged it. I should have thought about the whole problem carefully first, using my abstract knowledge of the physics of batteries (epistêmê), and applying some wisdom to planning my approach (phronesis).

Read this overview by Peter Goodyear.