Rands In Repose: A Story Culture | Hacker News Reader

Rands In Repose: A Story Culture

randsinrepose.com

20 pointsfilament6 comments

Culture is becoming nothing but advertising. The anthropologist Steve Barnett saw in this the phenomenon of pattern exhaustion, in which a culture runs out of variations of traditional designs in their pottery and become less creative.

The trick is that wisdom can often be expressed by the wise in 140 characters, and the non-wise can recognize it as wisdom, but to truly understand requires far more subtly than 140 characters.

even a good discussion is only so useful for exploring nuance, subtly and balance. at some point experience is all there is, and communication is more about mentoring and guiding.

can two people even truly communicate? can we even share?

Given the relationship I have with one of my closest friends I think it's possible for two people to truly communicate. We don't complete each other's sentences just yet. Give us 20 years together and we probably will. My grandparents can do that.

I don't think it's worthwhile to look for meaning in twitter messages. A mere 140 characters isn't enough to have a deep discussion but it might have some insight. I get more from discussing my insight with friends than I do looking for it on twitter. Wisdom takes time.

Edit: removed a paragraph that wasn't needed

I don't doubt that close friends are an invaluable source of meaning but I think you may have missed the point of Rand's post.

I'm pretty sure he is not arguing that there is deep wisdom to be found in 140 characters. Rather, through your interaction with many tweets from many people you can distil meaning.

The point of Twitter isn’t knowledge or understanding, it’s merely connective information tissue. It’s small bits of information carefully selected by those you’ve chosen to follow and its value isn’t in what they send, it’s how it fits into the story in your head. There are great stories to be found on Twitter, but you have to do the work.

You're not precluded from discussing tweets with your friend.

I think I may be using a different definition for meaning. I equate meaning to wisdom rather than information or knowledge.

I don't think twitter has much wisdom to offer. It has starting points for valuable thoughts from time to time. Which I see as the the point of the article.

"The value of the idea is one part that it is yours and one part that you gave it to someone else. It’s you and something new."

I loved this..

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