Proximity to the Source

In the age of information, a typical person today will see more information in a day than their ancestors from a few generations ago might have come across in a lifetime. Information and communication builds upon itself, the more there is, the faster new information and connections can be created. A network effect that increases that total value of the network in a reinforcing loop.

Not all information is created equal. Almost all the information that I come across is a secondary or tertiary source. It is information that someone else is repeating from another source. This information sharing mimics the childhood game of telephone, where one person repeats a phrase they heard in a whisper to the next person and so on down a line of people. By the end of the line, the phrase that the last person shouts out has transformed from the initial phrase so much that everyone can have a good laugh.

In the telephone example, everyone’s source was the person before them. They had no way to check with the first person, so they just had to do their best at remembering and repeating what they thought they heard. Inevitably, something is lost.

The same is true for the sources of information we now consume in droves. But what I seem to find is that the sources of information that I receive are similar to the millions of other people because what I tend to see is what goes viral. This is fine and dandy for entertainment, but for knowledge itself, I can’t help but feel that I must be missing some part of the message.

This year, I aspire to look more deeply at the source material that has guided much of human and economic development on the scale of centuries.

I can’t help but feel that getting closer to the source is valuable and challenging. It allows one to have original thoughts from the connections they piece together from ground zero rather than relying on the interpretations of others.

In Large Language Models, the strength of the model and the predictions it can make are highly dependent on the body of source material that it is trained on. In some ways, your brain is a version of this principle. You experiences and knowledge gained from other people’s experiences and knowledge form the basis of why you do anything.

What source material do you think shaped your beliefs and operating system most? Is it a religious text, a series of experiences at school, a particular activity you engaged in, a family tradition? Maybe all of the above and that unique blend of experiences formed you exactly as you are.