[HN Gopher] The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]
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The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]
Author : jkuria
Score : 54 points
Date : 2024-01-06 11:21 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ias.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ias.edu)
| MaxBarraclough wrote:
| This wants a _(1939)_.
| liangzhihaver wrote:
| Reminds me of this delightful passage from the outer chapters of
| the Zhuangzi (tr. Brook Ziporyn):
|
| _Huizi said to Zhuangzi, "Your words are useless."
|
| Zhuangzi said, "It is only when you know uselessness that you can
| understand anything about the useful. The earth is certainly vast
| and wide, but a man at any time uses only as much of it as his
| two feet can cover. But if you were to dig away all the earth
| around his feet, down to the Yellow Springs, would that little
| patch he stands on be of any use to him?"
|
| Huizi said, "It would be useless."
|
| Zhuangzi said, "Then the usefulness of the useless should be
| quite obvious."_
| zvmaz wrote:
| > [...] most of the really great discoveries which had ultimately
| proved to be beneficial to mankind had been made by men and women
| who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the
| desire to satisfy their curiosity.
|
| > "Curiosity?" asked Mr. Eastman. "Yes," I replied, "curiosity,
| which mayor may not eventuate in something useful, is probably
| the outstanding characteristic of modern thinking. It is not new.
| It goes back to Galileo, Bacon, and to Sir Isaac Newton, and it
| must be absolutely unhampered.
|
| "Curiosity" goes back to a few centuries ago, and in Europe?
| Short-sighted and eurocentric.
| PedroBatista wrote:
| Curious if you could build a time machine, go back to 1939 and
| give them a earful.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| Shameful that this man living 100 years ago isn't as
| progressive as I am.
|
| He's saying it goes at least that far back, not that Francis
| bacon invented curiosity.
| yterdy wrote:
| I mean, to be fair, it is shameful that it took Western
| civilization so long to get over its insecure narcissism. I
| wouldn't suggest stewing in that shame, of course; rather, it
| should be a lesson in how, at any time where people are
| assured of their development and sophistication, blind spots
| still exist.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| What civilization isn't subject to narcissism?
| kiba wrote:
| It would also be incorrect to say that we're not
| sophisticated or developed. That's just false humility.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Past submissions with discussion: (there are some more with 1-4
| comments, but no real discussion)
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28121309 - Aug 10, 2021 - 23
| comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18683298 - Dec 18. 2018 - 12
| comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14558775 - June 15, 2017 -
| 33 comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4305179 - July 28, 2012 - 22
| comments
| dang wrote:
| Thanks! Macroexpanded:
|
| _The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28121309 - Aug 2021 (23
| comments)
|
| _The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23791427 - July 2020 (4
| comments)
|
| _The usefulness of useless knowledge (1939) [pdf]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18683298 - Dec 2018 (12
| comments)
|
| _A. Flexner - The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656457 - June 2017 (1
| comment)
|
| _The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14558775 - June 2017 (33
| comments)
|
| _The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4305179 - July 2012 (21
| comments)
| BarbaryCoast wrote:
| "Of what use is a new-born baby" Michael Faraday, asked about
| electricity.
|
| There's also David Pye, and his thoughts on "useless work", and
| how that builds a better world. See "The Nature and Art of
| Workmanship".
| gwern wrote:
| Interesting to contrast Flexner's great optimism about his
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Advanced_Study (which
| he founded) with the severe criticism the IAS has received from a
| number of scientists such as Richard Hamming:
| https://gwern.net/doc/science/1986-hamming#fame-working-cond...
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