General and Surprising

September 2017 The most valuable insights are both general and surprising.

2017 年 9 月 最有价值的见解既普遍又令人惊讶。

F = ma for example.

例如，F = ma。

But general and surprising is a hard combination to achieve.

但一般性和令人惊讶是很难实现的结合。

That territory tends to be picked clean, precisely because those insights are so valuable.

该领域往往会被清理干净，正是因为这些见解非常有价值。

Ordinarily, the best that people can do is one without the other: either surprising without being general (e.g. gossip), or general without being surprising (e.g.

通常，人们能做的最好的事情就是两者兼而有之：要么令人惊讶但不笼统（例如八卦），要么笼统但不令人惊讶（例如

platitudes).

陈词滥调）。

Where things get interesting is the moderately valuable insights.

事情变得有趣的是具有中等价值的见解。

You get those from small additions of whichever quality was missing.

你可以通过添加一些缺失的质量来获得这些。

The more common case is a small addition of generality: a piece of gossip that's more than just gossip, because it teaches something interesting about the world.

更常见的情况是稍微增加了一般性：一段八卦不仅仅是八卦，因为它教会了一些关于世界的有趣事情。

But another less common approach is to focus on the most general ideas and see if you can find something new

但另一种不太常见的方法是关注最普遍的想法，看看是否能找到新的东西

to say about them.

说说他们。

Because these start out so general, you only need a small delta of novelty to produce a useful insight.

因为这些一开始都很笼统，所以你只需要一点点新奇的东西就可以产生有用的见解。

A small delta of novelty is all you'll be able to get most of the time.

大多数时候你所能获得的只是一小部分新奇的东西。

Which means if you take this route, your ideas will seem a lot like ones that already exist.

这意味着如果你走这条路，你的想法将看起来很像已经存在的想法。

Sometimes you'll find you've merely rediscovered an idea that did already exist.

有时你会发现你只是重新发现了一个已经存在的想法。

But don't be discouraged.

但不要灰心。

Remember the huge

记住巨大的

multiplier that kicks in when you do manage to think of something even a little new.

当你确实想出一些新的东西时，乘数就会开始发挥作用。

Corollary: the more general the ideas you're talking about, the less you should worry about repeating yourself.

推论：你谈论的想法越普遍，你就越不用担心重复自己。

If you write enough, it's inevitable you will.

如果你写得足够多，那是不可避免的。

Your brain is much the same from year to year and so are the stimuli that hit it.

你的大脑每年都大同小异，影响它的刺激也是如此。

I feel slightly bad when I find I've said something close to what I've said before, as if I were plagiarizing

当我发现我说的话与我以前说过的很接近时，我感觉有点糟糕，就好像我在抄袭一样

myself.

我自己。

But rationally one shouldn't.

但从理性上讲不应该。

You won't say something exactly the same way the second time, and that variation increases the chance you'll get that tiny but critical delta of novelty.

你第二次不会以完全相同的方式说出同样的话，而这种变化会增加你获得微小但关键的新奇感的机会。

And of course, ideas beget ideas.

当然，想法会产生想法。

(That sounds familiar .) An idea with a small amount of novelty could lead to one with more.

（这听起来很熟悉。）一个具有少量新颖性的想法可能会导致一个具有更多新颖性的想法。

But only if you keep going.

但前提是你继续前进。

So it's doubly important not to let yourself be discouraged by people who

因此，不要让自己因那些人而灰心丧气，这一点尤为重要。

say there's not much new about something you've discovered.

说你发现的东西并没有太多新意。

"Not much new" is a real achievement when you're talking about the most general ideas.

当你谈论最普遍的想法时，“没什么新意”是一个真正的成就。

<!-- Maybe if you keep going, you'll discover more.

<!--也许如果你继续前进，你会发现更多。

--> It's not true that there's nothing new under the sun.

--> 太阳底下并无新事，这话并不正确。

There are some domains where there's almost nothing new.

有些领域几乎没有什么新东西。

But there's a big difference between nothing and almost nothing, when it's multiplied by the area under the sun.

但当它乘以阳光下的面积时，什么都没有和几乎什么都没有之间有很大的区别。

Thanks to Sam Altman, Patrick Collison, and Jessica Livingston for reading drafts of this.

感谢 Sam Altman、Patrick Collison 和 Jessica Livingston 阅读本文的草稿。