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RichardKennaway comments on [Link] Eric S. Raymond - Me and Less Wrong - Less Wrong Discussion
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I would be more suspicious of a work along these lines that was full of new insight. Science and Sanity is a work of synthesis, not of discovery, and sometimes we do need someone to put it all together and tell us what, once we hear it, we can easily dismiss as "but we knew all that anyway". "What is new is not good, and what is good is not new" is a misdirected complaint when made against a work of this sort. What is new in "The God Delusion" or "The Selfish Gene"? Only the presentation of those syntheses to the masses. Ask rather, what is old, but seen anew?
OK, I'm asking. (I have no objection to pop science, pop psychology, pop philosophy, etc., when done well.) What is "old, but seen anew"? Specifically: suppose me to be a longstanding LW participant, reasonably well read in science and philosophy; if I read (say) Science and Sanity or some later GS work, am I likely to come out the far end knowing more or thinking better, and if so what do you expect me to learn?
Then reading S&S may well be supererogatory. If you've read all of the Sequences, you will recognise much in S&S, just as I, having read S&S, recognised much in the Sequences.