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STANDING_TOOLS

                                             June 13, 2010


  "A philosophy or method of thinking which is
  held in control-- the mind rising above it, and
  understanding its limitations-- is a valuable               DENOTE
  instrument; but a method in which one is simply
  immersed, without seeing how things can be
  otherwise rationally regarded, is a sheer
  restriction of the mental powers."

          -- Charles S. Peirce,
             "The English Doctrine of Ideas 1"
             _The Nation_, November 25, 1869
             http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/writings/v2/w2/w2_30/v2_30.htm


      This is a style of thinking about thinking
      that's common in the software engineering world.
                                                         REPTILLIAN_MONOTHEISM
      You often hear it argued that one should be
      familiar with many different kinds of computer
      languages, not because they're necessarily         KNOWLEDGE_IS_GOOD
      practically useful, but for the sake of the
      mental exercise.

      If you like that line, you might take this
      quote from 1869 as a piece of support for that.

      Otherwise, you could take it as a sign that
      that style of thinking about thinking is in
      itself fairly old, and possibly in need of
      examination itself.

          Could it be that it has it's own
          biases that need to be understood?

                                What might those be?
                                Let's say: "a fear of
                                commitment".

                                A tendency to hang back.

                                Clinging to an overview
                                can be the enemy of           FAITH_CYCLE
                                detailed knowledge.



                                                    LANGUAGES_OF_POWER



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