Experience Is an Illusion of System Completeness

We tend to think of experience in a given role is obviously good–it provides pattern matching and intuitions built up on lived events. If you consider experience as a process of formalization (i.e. formal system) of a given profession, then Godel incompleteness means there will always be more unproven yet true axioms in the field.

This seems to explain Planck’s principle where it takes a new generation of practitioners for new ideas to emerge. They are more willing to make leaps and try something new rather than rely on the illusion of a robust system from which to derive new knowledge.

  • Surprise Plus Memory Equals Learning

    Learning is composed of two elements: surprise and memory. If you go about life and nothing is surprising then you wouldn’t have anything new to learn. Similarly, if you don’t retain the lessons from being surprised then you haven’t learned it.