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The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (1939) [pdf]

126 points by jxmorris12

by devindotcom

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"Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity and the less they are deflected by considerations of immediacy of application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times."
Very smart guy. I bought the print copy of this essay here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174761/th...

by jhoechtl

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As a mostly recluse myself, I made.my.peace with world. The world is led by men who think the faster we arrive at utility the faster money can be made. True. The falacy on that way is to assume that people like Maxwell, Oersted and many more mentioned in the article would prefer working in teams which is shoveled these days into the fabric of academic collaboration. It's not. Genius people prefer working alone and their discoveries did and do happen while they are left alone. Out society will lose and already lost a lot with the current requirements of collaborarion in academic work. Venture capital provided by prolific no-knowers is also detromental.

by gonzalohm

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I feel like the two types of people described in this paper match really well with my experience. To give an example, I like to code, I code to solve problems. I created an internal tool for my company because it was useful for me and solved a few problems that I was dealing with in a day to day. I shared it with a few coworkers and that was pretty much it.
Once the "useful type of person" (like the one described in the paper) discovered the tool and liked it, started thinking about how we could sell it. That was never my purpose and if anything I would have liked to make it open source. Also, once you start going down that path, the original project, which you created out of curiosity, is now there to "serve a purpose" and sometimes it becomes too disconnected from its original purpose.
I also believe that's really hard for these two types of people to put in each other's boots.
Could this also be the two types of people we see with AI? The ones that think that AI is horrible because what they like is coding and crafting something vs the ones that love AI because it allows them to build for a purpose

by niraj-agarwal

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"The mere fact that they bring satisfaction to an individual soul bent upon its own purification and elevation is all the justification that they need."

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by Dependance

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What an article. Hard to think it was written takes out fingers 86 years ago...?
Really makes me think that the so-called goal of life circles around those points. I can totally imagine a third-place solely dedicated to curiosity. Hard to bring such places into existence with the capitalist hell-hole we're in, but when there is a will...

by oliculipolicula

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