Losing discoveries so others can find them

https://www.publicbooks.org/samuel-johnson-online-dictionary/

by collate • 4 years ago

31 7 4 years ago

thrdbndndn• 4 years ago

We talk of “making discoveries” as if forming them out of clay. As if we craft discoveries from the malleable world with our own two hands

I don't get this opening. Do we? Isn't this more like "invention"?

My understanding of the word "discovery" (today) is exactly as what "the 18th-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson" defined in his dictionary, (cited in this article), “the act of finding any thing hidden,” or else, “the act of revealing or disclosing any secret.”

prvc2• 4 years ago

This project was publicly funded. However, I cannot find any downloadable version of this database.

mavhc2• 4 years ago

https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/blog/copyright/ suggests they don't want you to download it

prvc2• 4 years ago

Of course they don't, but perhaps they ought to allow it, or even to make it easy to do.

xtiansimon• 4 years ago

Lovely piece—subject matter wise and for the authors subtle reasoning on meaning of discovery. Not so delicate you can’t follow along.

Personally, I learned to collect things in my younger days-—actual objects. Always at a monetary cost, so decisions hade to be made. I would console myself, leaving something behind, with the idea another person will find this something later and experience the joy of discovery. And I, this time will satisfy myself with the bitter sweet feeling of letting something go.

mavhc2• 4 years ago

Writing things into a computer lets you forget them, because you can search for them later.

Losing discoveries so others can find them

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