The problem with a novelty scale is that novelty has a high degree of circumstantial/subjectivity to it. What’s new to one person is old hat to another. Millions of people may independently recreate the same wisdom based on their life experiences, and that insight feels new to them, but might not be new to those they share it with. In the modern age, not even a google search can guarantee that an idea hasn’t been laid out somewhere by someone.
Very true. I think I’m mainly trying to preempt accusations that I’m simply rehashing Taboo Your Words (which I pretty much am rehashing!)
Also, by stating “this isn’t very novel”, I’m also communicating to the neophyte (as opposed to current rationalists) that there’s a wide body of knowledge out there that’s quite similar to what I’ve written. That’s potentially useful to the neophyte.
Conveying that is often worthwhile, but it’s situational enough that simply stating the context of what you’re doing is probably a better idea than formalizing a novelty scale.
Also, I didn’t mention this above, but re-hashing stuff that isn’t novel can be highly useful. Penetration of an idea into the population would never happen if people only ever pointed to the original source for an idea without conveying/spreading it themselves. It’s helpful to have a million blog posts about the same thing, because each of those blogs is reaching a slightly different audience.
The problem with a novelty scale is that novelty has a high degree of circumstantial/subjectivity to it. What’s new to one person is old hat to another. Millions of people may independently recreate the same wisdom based on their life experiences, and that insight feels new to them, but might not be new to those they share it with. In the modern age, not even a google search can guarantee that an idea hasn’t been laid out somewhere by someone.
Very true. I think I’m mainly trying to preempt accusations that I’m simply rehashing Taboo Your Words (which I pretty much am rehashing!)
Also, by stating “this isn’t very novel”, I’m also communicating to the neophyte (as opposed to current rationalists) that there’s a wide body of knowledge out there that’s quite similar to what I’ve written. That’s potentially useful to the neophyte.
Conveying that is often worthwhile, but it’s situational enough that simply stating the context of what you’re doing is probably a better idea than formalizing a novelty scale.
Also, I didn’t mention this above, but re-hashing stuff that isn’t novel can be highly useful. Penetration of an idea into the population would never happen if people only ever pointed to the original source for an idea without conveying/spreading it themselves. It’s helpful to have a million blog posts about the same thing, because each of those blogs is reaching a slightly different audience.