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> I find it funny that these people had no choice but to understand large and complex with nothing but pen and paper. Some took it even further. The reason Pla
by User23 6y ago
> I find it funny that these people had no choice but to understand large and complex with nothing but pen and paper.
Some took it even further. The reason Plato gives for why Socrates wrote nothing down is that writing is an aid to memory and a form of crutch for the mind. And just as walking around on crutches will weaken a healthy man’s legs over time, so will leaning on writing weaken his memory.
- agumonkey 6y agoright i remember this, it was framed as a history of anti-tech and purism .. in any case I think most brains, even the smartest will need a bit of storage to avoid looping around old ideas that were proven wrong hence paper
- phreeza 6y agoThe alternative view is that the right tools are more like a bicycle and less like crutches. The art is knowing which is which I suppose.
- gumby 6y agoWas your use of this example a reference to Steve Job's referring of the computer as the "Bicycle of the mind"? I think he might have been quoting Stewart Brand.
- adolph 6y agoLearning by Shipping article claims Jobs credits "March 1973 Scientific American." [0, 1] Jobs says it in the presence of Brand in this Wired book excerpt [2], to which Ken Kesey [!] replies "It’s the next thing after acid!" [3] 0. https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/bicycle-121262546097 https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/bicycle-121262546097 1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24923004?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents https://www.jstor.org/stable/24923004?seq=1#metadata_info_ta... 2. https://www.wired.com/story/how-doug-engelbart-pulled-off-the-mother-of-all-demos/ https://www.wired.com/story/how-doug-engelbart-pulled-off-th... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey
- cyberbanjo 6y agoMore zeppelins than bikes.
- dwiel 6y agoDefinitely extending the usefulness of the analogy, but when I am riding my bike a lot and then take a break for repairs and walk more instead, I quickly get sore. Even after walking distances that I dont normally get sore from if I am bike free for a while and walking more regularly.
- mc32 6y agoSo can we test against an illiterate population and test their memory, recall and problem solving techniques ?
- quercusa 6y agoThere have been such studies* of at least the first two, showing that pre-literate people are far better at memorizing (e.g., long epic poems) than literate people. * Yes, citation needed. Searching...
- quercusa 6y agoHow Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory? https://daily.jstor.org/how-do-we-know-that-epic-poems-were-recited-from-memory/ https://daily.jstor.org/how-do-we-know-that-epic-poems-were-... Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640519
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThey were not "recited from memory" as we would understand that phrase today, though. Oral epic poets do not use the same wording every time they deliver the same poem.