文章探讨了如何获得有价值的洞见，指出最宝贵的洞见通常既普遍又令人惊讶，但这类洞见往往已经被挖掘殆尽。文章建议关注中等价值的洞见，通过在既有知识基础上增加少量新意来获得，比如将八卦信息转化为对世界的理解。作者强调，即使新意很小，也能产生巨大的价值，尤其是在讨论最普遍的概念时，不必过于担心重复。文章鼓励持续思考和探索，即使发现的只是微小的创新，也可能引发更大的突破，因为思想会不断孕育新的思想。

🤔 **最宝贵的洞见通常既普遍又令人惊讶，但这类洞见往往已经被挖掘殆尽。** 因此，人们通常只能获得其中之一：要么令人惊讶但不普遍（如八卦），要么普遍但不令人惊讶（如陈词滥调）。

💡 **中等价值的洞见可以通过在既有知识基础上增加少量新意来获得。** 这可以体现在将八卦信息转化为对世界的理解，或者在最普遍的概念中寻找新的表达方式。

🔄 **即使新意很小，也能产生巨大的价值，尤其是在讨论最普遍的概念时。** 因为起点非常普遍，只需要少量的新颖性就能产生有用的洞见。

🌱 **思想会不断孕育新的思想。** 一个略带新意的想法可能会引发更多新想法，因此不要被他人对你的发现的质疑所打消积极性。

☀️ **并非所有领域都缺乏新意，即使是微小的创新，在广阔的领域中也能产生巨大的影响。** 不要被“没什么新意”的评价所束缚，要相信持续探索的价值。

September 2017The most valuable insights are both general and surprising. F = ma for example. But general and surprising is a hardcombination to achieve. That territory tends to be pickedclean, precisely because those insights are so valuable.Ordinarily, the best that people can do is one without theother: either surprising without being general (e.g.gossip), or general without being surprising (e.g.platitudes).Where things get interesting is the moderately valuableinsights. You get those from small additions of whicheverquality was missing. The more common case is a smalladdition of generality: a piece of gossip that's more thanjust gossip, because it teaches something interesting aboutthe world. But another less common approach is to focus onthe most general ideas and see if you can find something newto say about them. Because these start out so general, youonly need a small delta of novelty to produce a usefulinsight.A small delta of novelty is all you'll be able to get mostof the time. Which means if you take this route, your ideaswill seem a lot like ones that already exist. Sometimesyou'll find you've merely rediscovered an idea that didalready exist. But don't be discouraged. Remember the hugemultiplier that kicks in when you do manage to think ofsomething even a little new.Corollary: the more general the ideas you're talking about,the less you should worry about repeating yourself. If youwrite enough, it's inevitable you will. Your brain is muchthe same from year to year and so are the stimuli that hitit. I feel slightly bad when I find I've said somethingclose to what I've said before, as if I were plagiarizingmyself. But rationally one shouldn't. You won't saysomething exactly the same way the second time, and thatvariation increases the chance you'll get that tiny butcritical delta of novelty.And of course, ideas beget ideas. (That sounds familiar.)An idea with a small amount of novelty could lead to onewith more. But only if you keep going. So it's doublyimportant not to let yourself be discouraged by people whosay there's not much new about something you've discovered."Not much new" is a real achievement when you're talkingabout the most general ideas. It's not true that there's nothing new under the sun. Thereare some domains where there's almost nothing new. Butthere's a big difference between nothing and almost nothing,when it's multiplied by the area under the sun.Thanks to Sam Altman, Patrick Collison, and JessicaLivingston for reading drafts of this.