If we get better search systems I would be totally on board. But most knowledge base systems have a hard time finding similes for words let alone sorting articles containing multiple keywords in a useful order.

Having the information written down is important if nothing else than a source of reasoning going forward (people tend to remember do X but rarely why in my experience). However saying that asking a coworker is a bad thing is giving way too much credit to the documentation.

Additionally if you are talking about anything but the most basic associations talking with people is a good thing anyway as you can discuss your idea and see if there are problems the documentation couldn't tell you about because said problem would be listed in a different place.