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Every brilliant person I’ve known had their own linguistic dialect with common words, references & statements connecting their unique knowledge structures & enabling their creative thoughts. My goal is always to learn this language enough to see their knowledge structures. 
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I learned this tool in Interdisciplinary travels across biology spanning herpetology, immunology, protein chemistry, math-bio, theoretical ecology, microbiome data analysis, disease ecology, finance & epidemiology. Fields of science are like a brilliant person with their dialects
(For the record, the brilliant person that triggered this thread is @PezeshkiCharles and his nuanced thoughts about structural memetics - how knowledge is organized, created, and synthesized to higher replicated forms like memetic amoebas from primordial soup of simpler memes).
Enter into a new field, or a brilliant person’s carefully written thoughts, paying close attention to the words they say frequently that others don’t. As a deaf guy, this is a cardinal rule for building a vocabulary that allows me to Bayesian-impute the words I didn’t hear.
Many people see new words as jargon. I see them as culture and knowledge. As an active learner, I want all your jargon, your authentic speaking as if I am familiar with everything you know. This helps me quickly identify words, concepts, and their connections I don’t know.
Learning the words and conceptual maps that connect them enables one to see the broader structure of a field or understand the brilliance of a complex thought. Taking time to *really* understand what someone’s saying, with all their unique references, takes time but is worth it.
Learning truly new things is not easy. Some of the greatest insights may not be skimmable or easy like a high-fructose corn syrup meal of knowledge. Like a hard of hearing guy listening, one may have to pay insanely close attention just to grasp 60% of what’s said. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🦻" title="Ohr mit Hörgerät" aria-label="Emoji: Ohr mit Hörgerät">
But taking the time and paying the attention to the fields and people with the complex thoughts has, to me, always been worth it. To reap the rewards of complex thoughts, we have to deliberately manage our time and attention by occupational, lifestyle, and other adaptations.
The journey may be lonely. With every complex thinker’s language you learn, your own common words, references and connected concepts becomes progressively more uncommon, your dialect farther from boring and closer to babbling to the ears of the busy and inattentive https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤪" title="Dummes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Dummes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß">
But this journey of trying to synthesize complex knowledge is worth it, just like soloing a mountain - it’s beautiful to see the innovative fire of synthesized thoughts from this lonely summit.
@PezeshkiCharles - thanks for the writings on structural memetics! More laterhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤓" title="Nerd-Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nerd-Gesicht">
@PezeshkiCharles - thanks for the writings on structural memetics! More later
My reading tonight below.
@alex_lamb, you and @PezeshkiCharles have a similar spark. I recommended the Roboteer to Chuck & can recommend his thoughts to you!
https://empathy.guru/2019/04/06/what-is-structural-memetics-and-why-does-it-matter/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">https://empathy.guru/2019/04/0... https://www.amazon.com/Roboteer-Alex-Lamb/dp/147320609X">https://www.amazon.com/Roboteer-...
@alex_lamb, you and @PezeshkiCharles have a similar spark. I recommended the Roboteer to Chuck & can recommend his thoughts to you!
https://empathy.guru/2019/04/06/what-is-structural-memetics-and-why-does-it-matter/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">https://empathy.guru/2019/04/0... https://www.amazon.com/Roboteer-Alex-Lamb/dp/147320609X">https://www.amazon.com/Roboteer-...
@PezeshkiCharles, I think complex thoughts can synthesize for high-fidelity replication with the combination of long-form writing (like your blog and Alex’s book) and a quorum of people committed to time, attention, and the empathetic engagement you discuss. Count me in!!!
I’m thinking about how to help this theoretical rubber hit the road of empiricism. If we see knowledge as observable with replicated linguistic forms (words, topics, and references) then maybe we can better study its different patterns of development across social structures?
