nothing new under the sun

epistemic status: this too is something stole remixed

One thing that helped me get over some stupid self-set high standard about only wanting to write original stuff with new insights is visakans “everything is a remix”, which I am remixing here. It’s main take is that there is no true originality, we always take existing stuff and combine it, rearrange it, to create something new.

(Even visa admits of getting that take from somewhere else, from a video essay with the same name. That video essay probably got that idea from even somewhere else. It turns up in quite a few places, e.g. Wittgenstein: “The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long.”)

Embracing this means letting go of any imagined bar to pass before putting something online, having no standards about needed originality that prevent one from doing. Maybe to the detriment of the reader, who now has to wade through a sea of reurgitated ideas, but to the benefit of the writer: producing quantity is the best way to one day start producing quality. Be prolific.

In addition to practicing writing skills, my main purpose for revisiting old ideas is that in the process of recasting them from my mind and my view I am structuring my thoughts. This hopefully helps make thoughts clearer, uncover gaps in thinking, and maybe even turn up something new in the process.