4 ms·

My favorite quote that expresses this idea is from Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47: “Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a

My favorite quote that expresses this idea is from Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47: “Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field.”

ecshafer 3mo ago
A good example of why this is true I see in my bubble is in Indie tabletop RPGs. Fairly regularly if you follow indie rpg websites and forums, you get the following "I am sick of how Dungeons and Dragons does X so I made a new system". They will then proceed to describe Dungeons and Dragons but with some half-baked idea that is already done in some other game. So you might say "Hey this is already done in Traveller". But the people who have extremely little exposure to the field, and have only ever played one game (D&D typically) ends up re-exploring the field with "new ideas" that have existed for decades and have already been iterated upon.
- jdub 3mo ago
  Cheat: "That's in GURPS. Uh huh, GURPS. Seen it: GURPS. Good idea, really nicely executed in GURPS. You'll like how GURPS did that." :-D
- hardlianotion 3mo ago
  Oh Traveller! It has been such a long time since I thought about it. Have I still got those manuals, I wonder?
conartist6 3mo ago
And then, if you are great, you will steal not from one thing but from everything
- euroderf 3mo ago
  This sounds like the manifesto of an Andy Warhol LLM.
  - conartist6 3mo ago
    wE aRe aLl tHe aNdY wArHoL LlM
worldthruword 3mo ago
there is negative stealing or avoiding mistakes done by others. as propounded by Warren Buffet and others. and epitomized by philosophy of being less wrong.
pnexk 3mo ago
In a similar vein, one of my favorite HN comments in the context of the modernist movement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27243252 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27243252
jdub 3mo ago
(It feels very grumpy-old-man to complain about "low effort", but I think it's more culturally relevant than ever before...) ... not investigating your field is a massive low effort failure mode. You don't have to know your field, but you have to investigate it, appreciate it, draw upon it... even, or perhaps especially, if you're standing in opposition to it. (This is also why "first principles" twits like Elon are so annoying...)

ecshafer 3mo ago

A good example of why this is true I see in my bubble is in Indie tabletop RPGs. Fairly regularly if you follow indie rpg websites and forums, you get the following "I am sick of how Dungeons and Dragons does X so I made a new system". They will then proceed to describe Dungeons and Dragons but with some half-baked idea that is already done in some other game. So you might say "Hey this is already done in Traveller". But the people who have extremely little exposure to the field, and have only ever played one game (D&D typically) ends up re-exploring the field with "new ideas" that have existed for decades and have already been iterated upon.

jdub 3mo ago
Cheat: "That's in GURPS. Uh huh, GURPS. Seen it: GURPS. Good idea, really nicely executed in GURPS. You'll like how GURPS did that." :-D
hardlianotion 3mo ago
Oh Traveller! It has been such a long time since I thought about it. Have I still got those manuals, I wonder?

conartist6 3mo ago

And then, if you are great, you will steal not from one thing but from everything

euroderf 3mo ago
This sounds like the manifesto of an Andy Warhol LLM.
- conartist6 3mo ago
  wE aRe aLl tHe aNdY wArHoL LlM

worldthruword 3mo ago

there is negative stealing or avoiding mistakes done by others. as propounded by Warren Buffet and others. and epitomized by philosophy of being less wrong.

pnexk 3mo ago

In a similar vein, one of my favorite HN comments in the context of the modernist movement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27243252 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27243252

jdub 3mo ago

(It feels very grumpy-old-man to complain about "low effort", but I think it's more culturally relevant than ever before...) ... not investigating your field is a massive low effort failure mode. You don't have to know your field, but you have to investigate it, appreciate it, draw upon it... even, or perhaps especially, if you're standing in opposition to it. (This is also why "first principles" twits like Elon are so annoying...)