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EGarrett comments on Rationality Quotes Thread November 2015 - Less Wrong
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"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it." -GK Chesterton
Posted before: December 2012 and February 2010 before that.
3 years is enough time.
Chesterton's Fence is a well-known concept on LessWrong and frequently alluded to. It even has an entry in the wiki, containing this exact quote.
It's a great concept.
It is a useful idea, indeed, but it's familiar enough that it doesn't particularly need repeating, and the tradition here is not to repeat quotations at all. (Isn't it?)
The goal is not to tell people what they already know nor flout tradition. Just to share a quote from the Slack Chat that some segment of the thread readers may find useful.
You can be telling people what they already know and flouting tradition even if that's not your goal :-). Seriously, I think part of the point of the "rule" (in so far as it is a rule) is to disable what would otherwise be a cheap strategy for getting lots of karma without actually adding much value or demonstrating good sense or cleverness or anything: look through 5-year-old Rationality Quotes threads and repost the ones that got the most upvotes.
For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not accusing you of doing that! I'm saying that you've done, for other reasons, something that's frowned on because not frowning on it would open the way for that sort of misbehaviour.
Well I'm not interested in copy/pasting for cheap karma, and I don't wish to encourage or create an environment where others do it. All the best, no offense taken and hopefully no offense caused.
Slightly off topic, but if someone were to look through all the old quote threads and copy-paste the 10% highest ranked quotes within each thread into a single thread, that would be a good and useful service. That's still a ton of good quotes, so ideally this should be done yearly.
What if the fact that Chesterton fence quote is posted frequently is by itself an example of Chesterton fence and should not be discouraged? :)
This is my first time seeing this quote and it is a good one. Took me a minute to realize what he was saying. And I've been hanging out on this site for years.
I can't stop you from saying or thinking I should have noticed the quote before, if that's the way your mind works. But in reality I am not unique and I am not an idiot and if I find something particularly useful here there is likely a significant minority of the rest of the readers who find it useful. Which is sort of consistent with the quote.