Reasons to Look Things Up
Hint:
Always keep a notepad by your bed, so that if you have any kind of thoughts
or questions, no matter how weird or private, you can jot them down, then
look them up on Google when you have a chance.
Note that unlike AOL or Yahoo, Google does not release your searches to the public or to any agencies!
Read an excerpt from this author to find out why you should look things up:
Paul Graham,
Stanford University
From an essay, January, 2004
Why?
Some would ask, why would one want to do this? Why deliberately
go poking around among nasty, disreputable ideas? Why look under rocks?
For the same reason I did look under rocks as a kid: plain curiosity. And
I'm especially curious about anything that's forbidden. Let me see and decide
for myself.
It's good for the brain. To do good work you need a brain that can go anywhere.
And you especially need a brain that's in the habit of going where it's not
supposed to.
Great work tends to grow out of ideas that others have overlooked, and no
idea is so overlooked as one that's unthinkable. Natural selection, for example.
A good scientist, in other words, does not merely ignore conventional wisdom,
but makes a special effort to break it. Scientists go looking for trouble.
This should be the m.o. of any scholar, but scientists seem much more willing
to look under rocks.
Whatever the reason, there seems a clear correlation between intelligence
and willingness to consider shocking ideas. This isn't just because smart
people actively work to find holes in conventional thinking. I think conventions
also have less hold over them to start with. You can see that in the way
they dress.
Training yourself to think unthinkable thoughts has advantages beyond the
thoughts themselves. It's like stretching. When you stretch before running,
you put your body into positions much more extreme than any it will assume
during the run.
For the full text of this essay, click here