1, #50 - You already know what it is.
On repetition (again) — Estimated Read Time: 42 seconds.
Everything has already been said, but nobody was listening. So, we have to say it again.
Kevin Kelly said this in a podcast interview I heard this week. But I found out today that it’s actually a quote from 1947 Nobel laureate and literary critic, André Gide. Fitting, right?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Repetition is necessary.
In the face of too much information, we either miss the truth or forget it. And then we don’t go back, because the prospect of a new idea is more exciting than reengaging with something we think we already understand. And also because a lot of these cliché-sounding truths are simple, but not easy.
It’s like David Foster Wallace said in that speech:
On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
What do you find to be worth repeating, again and again?
Insight inspired by Kevin Kelly (again and again) and, I guess, André Gide. And David Foster Wallace (again).