I write for people younger than me, in the hope they can gain from what I've learned through experience. I believe sharing knowledge is one of the greatest accelerants for societal progress. The printing press was revolutionary precisely because you didn't have to experience things to learn from them - you could simply read about others' experiences. Even works of fiction are great because they allow you to experience distant worlds - worlds that don't exist, worlds separated in time and location. I was not alive during the English Civil War, but thanks to the magic of books, I can place myself as a member of society experiencing that period of upheaval.

In recent times, the internet has supercharged this. There existed a balance: the young had the better capacity to learn, but the old had more material (years of experience) to learn from. The internet is the great equalizer in the battle between neural plasticity and experience. When a seventeen-year-old today can access the accumulated knowledge of centuries, the gap closes fast. As evidence, you can look up how much younger the top ten chess players of today are compared to fifty years ago.

Respect for elders across cultures is a reflection of the advantage that age once brought. In today's world, that advantage is greatly diminished, and society needs to shift respect away from experience and towards the pursuit of knowledge and the truth. This blog, at times, is my contribution to that grand process towards progress.