Comment by programmertote | Hacker News Reader

Comment by programmertote | Hacker News Reader

Very good article and I hope more people read it. Over my career of 15 years in software (data management), I have learned exactly that. One other thing that really helped me was something that I learned in my Theravada Buddhist upbringing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesamutti_Sutta

> The Kesamutti Sutta states (Pali expression in parentheses):[5] Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing (anussava), nor upon tradition (paramparā), nor upon rumor (itikirā), nor upon what is in a scripture (piṭaka-sampadāna) nor upon surmise (takka-hetu), nor upon an axiom (naya-hetu), nor upon specious reasoning (ākāra-parivitakka), nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over (diṭṭhi-nijjhān-akkh-antiyā), nor upon another's seeming ability (bhabba-rūpatāya), nor upon the consideration, The monk is our teacher (samaṇo no garū) Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness," enter on and abide in them.'

That advice is something that I found very useful in life even though I have become an atheist since I was in 8th-9th grade.

Even though what you've shared here resonates with me, after googling it I seem to have discovered that this particular translation is contested. The claim seems to be that someone distorted their translation to be more rationalistic.[0]

Which is a shame if true, because I sorely wanted to believe that the Buddha was this, um, enlightened.

[0] https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/do-not-believe-in-anything-simp...

I have a hard time understanding what you mean by that, could you put it in simpler terms?

I have not seen the like nor studied the field but interpret it as internal over external knowing. personal experience over dogma of any stripe.

I thought that might be a possible interpretation, but then personal experience is just an anecdote and also not a thing when you're just starting out

Most people underestimate how valuable personal anecdotes are compared to sampling/survey data. Has it ever happened to you that a restaurant or other experience has thousands of rave reviews online (or even among your friends) but when you go there it's shockingly underwhelming? That happens a lot. Your personal anecdote is almost always more valuable in such cases because of several reasons including recency, authenticity, self-honesty and the usual problems with review aggregation platforms.

Food is a very subjective thing, online reviews generally are often intentionally or unintentionally distorted, and quality/staff at those places changes too over time. Considering all these factors, that does not make this specific scenario a great more general example

Alternative rephrasing from a source without a citation:

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

It is Buddha telling the traders that they shouldn't trust whatever is told to them even if it comes from the so-called experts/gurus, family/friends, teachers, traditions etc. He told them that they should try to reason out the things being told to them, give these a try in their lives and only keep them if these suggestions/advice works for them. A more simplified version can be found here too: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/personal/buddhist-pract...

Hope it helps. :)

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