Matthew Henry John Bartlett

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Wednesday 30 June, 02004

My interminable defense

by Matthew Bartlett @ 11:33 am

Edmund Burke said:

A clear idea is another name for a little idea.

12 responses to “My interminable defense”

  1. aaron says:

    matt is never clear (so the accusation goes)
    matt always has big ideas (so the implication of Burke’s saying goes)

  2. bryan says:

    little in terms of worth?

  3. Hans says:

    Aaron, thank you for translating the musings for us. Even if Burke is right, does that imply the truth of: “An obscure idea is a big idea”? I am sure that there is some technical term for that potential error, any logicians out there?

  4. I like it.

    If an idea is clear (ie easy to express / communicate successfully in current contexts) it is clearly not very groundbreaking. This is memetics – easy to understand ideas catch on fast, even if they’re not much good for anything.

    As Mark Twain said “A man with a [really] new idea is a crank until he succeeds.”

  5. kate says:

    hey matt. my hotmail is screwing up royally at the moment. if you got that email about damian’s dinner, could you email it to formankath@student.vuw.ac.nz. cheers, that would be fantastic.

  6. dan says:

    Argh – the spam monster will gobble you up if you leave your email address hanging out like that!

  7. John says:

    Surely big ideas are always a collection of small ideas? Think about your favourite lecturer/preacher/writer? Aren’t they always the ones who take a complex idea and simplify it? I always found that with people who were explaining things to me like how an engine works (or what bark on trees was made of) and I think it is the same for intangible ideas. None of them are ever that “complex” but are capable of simple/clear/precise expression without losing any of their richness.

  8. aaron says:

    like the Trinity, you mean ;)

  9. John says:

    Aaron
    You are right of course – Tri = 3, Unity = 1. Could it be any simpler?

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