It’s something that really stuck with me. Not all minds are alike, and it’s often worth finding your own words to say things that others have said. It’s useful to you, and it can be useful to others.
The thing I think many LW writers get wrong is that they aren’t humble about it. They rediscover something and act like they invented it, mostly because there seems to be some implicit belief that we’re better than those who came before us because we have Rationality(tm). I’ve been guilty of this, as have many others.
I saw another thing recently which put this idea about reinventing ideas in a new light. The author mentioned that when they were studying in a yeshiva everyone celebrated when one of the students rediscovered an argument made by an earlier writer, and the older the original author the better. It was a sign that the person was really grasping the ideas and was getting closer to God than the other students.
Whatever you think of studying rabbinical texts, this seems like a healthy sentiment to adopt when someone rediscovers an idea.
Anna Salamon made a point like this in a post several years ago: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZGzDNfNCXzfx6hYAH/how-to-learn-soft-skills
It’s something that really stuck with me. Not all minds are alike, and it’s often worth finding your own words to say things that others have said. It’s useful to you, and it can be useful to others.
The thing I think many LW writers get wrong is that they aren’t humble about it. They rediscover something and act like they invented it, mostly because there seems to be some implicit belief that we’re better than those who came before us because we have Rationality(tm). I’ve been guilty of this, as have many others.
I saw another thing recently which put this idea about reinventing ideas in a new light. The author mentioned that when they were studying in a yeshiva everyone celebrated when one of the students rediscovered an argument made by an earlier writer, and the older the original author the better. It was a sign that the person was really grasping the ideas and was getting closer to God than the other students.
Whatever you think of studying rabbinical texts, this seems like a healthy sentiment to adopt when someone rediscovers an idea.