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id, title, tags, daily, date-created
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| 2026-02-27T19:00:57-0500 | 2026-02-27 19:00:57 |
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2026-02-27 | 2026-02-27T19:00:57-05:00 |
2026-02-27 19:00:57
Attribution
[!info] This is a more objective explanation of my opinion on attribution see the previous note 2026-02-27_17-48-43 for a less formal discussion.
[!quote] README#Attribution
Attribution
Please do not credit my work unless you are obligated to by formal standards.
I'll concede that I hold this preference in large part because it's unpopular, but let it not be said that I don't have reasons.
The academic value of written work is, with very few exceptions,1 independent of its author.
This point is not controversial, it is understood that Warren Buffet's analysis of the stock market can be flawed even though he is a very successful trader.
If despite this you ... I am lead to two conclusions:
- you believe the author's person is relevant (you are foolish)
- you believe I believe the author's person is relevant (you believe I am foolish)
But I rarely believe either of these in earnest because the fallibility of experts is almost universally understood.
I'm not educated, but I've known many subject matter experts; electricians that have been so for over half as long as the profession has existed in earnest. I have known them to be as fallible, but I know you've been in my shoes and experienced the same in your own profession, so we can share this secret and recognize that no expert's word can be trusted on the merit of their "experience".
[!quote] John Dewey, Experience and Education (1938) Experience is inevitable, learning is not.2
Damn it.
This being the case, I'm lead to a secret third option:
- You believe the idea is relevant, but want to deny responsibility for its application.
Lorem ipsum set amet...
I consider it a glowing endorsement when my ideas are thought good enough by others to claim as their own, and I'm tempted to say that those frustrated by the same need an ego adjustment.
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Testimony of firsthand witnesses to events, though biases and the deterioration of memory make it not so much better than baseless speculation when compared to video evidence. ↩︎
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Dewey never says this in Experience and Education, or really anything so quotable. It's a popular paraphrasing of ideas expressed throughout the book, however from a cursory reading it doesn't seem to be one Dewey would agree was especially relevant. ↩︎