As someone whose Substack is about the ancient Greeks, this is funny because I so often wish that certain ancient books had not been lost. Much of what I do, I think, is to serve as a replacement for them.
But that is new -- a summary of a book is different from the book itself (especially given everyone will get something different from a book, so their summaries wpuld differ)
I'm coming to the end of a degree in philosophy right as I am retiring. My original plan was to do some studying and writing on my own, but I am very much aware that most of it has been written already. What shall I do?
* I was just wondering this week how people are still writing songs. Surely all the music has been used up by now.
From my point of view I'm just drawing concussions from quite conventional ideas, but yet they seem pretty far out. I can see that the most likely reason for this is that they are mis-drawn (and not worth the time of anyone who can show that they are wrong to do so). But I am not a statistic.
Now add the combinatorics of me reading this article at this time and feeling that you've given voice to something I've often felt AND that I decided to comment for the first time in a few months.
Even if it's already been said, it still has potential to resonate in new ways in the future.
“Even if it's of no use to anyone else, I've found new connections within my own mind, fitting them together in my brain in a way they haven't been before. And that's a unique construction all of its own.” Exactly. Even if something has been written before, new readers might make completely different meaning from it! Text on a page with no one to engage with it doesn’t really mean anything. Interaction is the thing!
Thanks for this piece. I have the same worries about writing.
Sounds a bit like issues I, too, have wrestled with - and maybe most folks have to some degree or another.
As someone whose Substack is about the ancient Greeks, this is funny because I so often wish that certain ancient books had not been lost. Much of what I do, I think, is to serve as a replacement for them.
Maybe don't try to say something new, just say things that are new to most people. I mean, if you like a book, and not many people know about it, just tell them what the book is about. Like I do: https://open.substack.com/pub/eclecticinquiries/p/analogical-reasoning-a-human-superpower?r=4952v2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
But that is new -- a summary of a book is different from the book itself (especially given everyone will get something different from a book, so their summaries wpuld differ)
I'm coming to the end of a degree in philosophy right as I am retiring. My original plan was to do some studying and writing on my own, but I am very much aware that most of it has been written already. What shall I do?
* I was just wondering this week how people are still writing songs. Surely all the music has been used up by now.
There are no original ideas, just original executions of ideas. (and even that idea is not mine)
I'll prepare the guillotine
😆 Exactly! Execute, execute, execute!
I'm a little more puzzled than doubtful about the ideas I advance at https://thomaslhutcheson.substack.com/.
From my point of view I'm just drawing concussions from quite conventional ideas, but yet they seem pretty far out. I can see that the most likely reason for this is that they are mis-drawn (and not worth the time of anyone who can show that they are wrong to do so). But I am not a statistic.
Now add the combinatorics of me reading this article at this time and feeling that you've given voice to something I've often felt AND that I decided to comment for the first time in a few months.
Even if it's already been said, it still has potential to resonate in new ways in the future.
“Even if it's of no use to anyone else, I've found new connections within my own mind, fitting them together in my brain in a way they haven't been before. And that's a unique construction all of its own.” Exactly. Even if something has been written before, new readers might make completely different meaning from it! Text on a page with no one to engage with it doesn’t really mean anything. Interaction is the thing!
Thanks for this piece. I have the same worries about writing.
Nothing new under the sun
This same line of thought might be applied to sex. Yet it persists.