4 ms·
Not everything is an invention. Do you have any routines that you've refined over the years? Is every step you take in a routine something you were taught or l
by xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
Not everything is an invention.
Do you have any routines that you've refined over the years? Is every step you take in a routine something you were taught or learned elsewhere? Or did you "invent" part of it yourself?
I know how to make tea or coffee. Should someone take the credit for the fact that I know to start boiling water first, while I get everything else together, because this results in the most efficient use of my time?
My perception of the paper is this analogy isn't too far off. It's not an invention, it's a discovery.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y agoPerhaps not everything is an invention, but I think everything we're talking about here is, including algorithms. In any case, that's just semantics: you can call it a "discovery" if you feel better about it, perhaps even run s/invention/discovery/g on my post. The points therein still stand: [inventions/discoveries] which at least 1 person in the world thinks (after the fact) are obvious and just a "small modification" of other [inventions/discoveries], usually go [uninvented/undiscovered] for quite some time. The paper and TFA asks, "why?" But the better question is, "why wouldn't they?" There's no reason to think they would be be immediately [invented/discovered] as soon as all the prerequisites are [invented/discovered] (again, even if someone thinks they're similar), for the reasons described in my above posts.