I find this comment relatable, and agree with the sentiment.
I also think I’ve come across this sort of idea in this post somewhere in EA before. But I can’t recall where, so for one thing this post gives me something to link people to.[1] Plus this particular presentation feels somewhat unfamiliar, so I think I’ve learned something new from it. And I definitely found it an interesting refresher in any case.
In general, I think reading up on what’s been written before is good (see also this), but that there’s no harm in multiple posts with similar messages, and often there are various benefits. And EA thoughts are so spread out that it’s often hard to thoroughly check what’s come before.
So I think it’s probably generally a good norm for people to be happy to post things without worrying too much about the possibility they’re rehashing existing ideas, at least when the posts are quick to write.
[1] Also, I sort of like the idea of often having posts that serve well as places to link people to for one specific concept or idea, with the concept or idea not being buried in a lot of other stuff. Sort of like posts that just pull out one piece of a larger set of ideas, so that that piece can be easily consumed and revisited by itself. I try to do this sort of thing sometimes. And I think this post could serve that function too—I’d guess that wherever I came across a similar idea, there was a lot of other stuff there too, so this post might serve better as a reference for this one idea than that source would’ve.
ETA: A partial counter consideration is that some ideas may be best understood in a broader context, and may be misinterpreted without that context (I’m thinking along the lines of the fidelity model). So I think the “cover just one piece” approach won’t always be ideal, and is rarely easy to do well.
I find this comment relatable, and agree with the sentiment.
I also think I’ve come across this sort of idea in this post somewhere in EA before. But I can’t recall where, so for one thing this post gives me something to link people to.[1] Plus this particular presentation feels somewhat unfamiliar, so I think I’ve learned something new from it. And I definitely found it an interesting refresher in any case.
In general, I think reading up on what’s been written before is good (see also this), but that there’s no harm in multiple posts with similar messages, and often there are various benefits. And EA thoughts are so spread out that it’s often hard to thoroughly check what’s come before.
So I think it’s probably generally a good norm for people to be happy to post things without worrying too much about the possibility they’re rehashing existing ideas, at least when the posts are quick to write.
[1] Also, I sort of like the idea of often having posts that serve well as places to link people to for one specific concept or idea, with the concept or idea not being buried in a lot of other stuff. Sort of like posts that just pull out one piece of a larger set of ideas, so that that piece can be easily consumed and revisited by itself. I try to do this sort of thing sometimes. And I think this post could serve that function too—I’d guess that wherever I came across a similar idea, there was a lot of other stuff there too, so this post might serve better as a reference for this one idea than that source would’ve.
ETA: A partial counter consideration is that some ideas may be best understood in a broader context, and may be misinterpreted without that context (I’m thinking along the lines of the fidelity model). So I think the “cover just one piece” approach won’t always be ideal, and is rarely easy to do well.