Copy-and-Paste Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a guess that has agreed to be tested. Copy-and-Paste Hypothesis is a guess worth the experiment.

Whether the hypothesis is finally true matters less than what it teaches you to notice. Good hypotheses are like good questions — they rearrange the furniture of the mind even when they are wrong.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

Ask any student of classical music. Ten years of scales before the first real improvisation. The shortcut generation finds this offensive; the tanpura is unmoved.

Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. Carry it lightly. Ideas, like umbrellas, are useful only when actually opened.