What a waste it would be to think you are pursuing a different path only to discover you spent a year reinventing something that you could have learned by reading papers for a few days.
> "I have been amazed at what we've found here," he told
them. "A few weeks ago I would not have believed, did not
believe, that records such as you have in your Memorabilia
could still be surviving from the fall of the last mighty
civilization. It is still hard to believe, but evidence forces us
to adopt the hypothesis that the documents are authentic.
> Their survival here is incredible enough; but even more
fantastic, to me, is the fact that they have gone unnoticed
during this century, until now. Lately there have been men
capable of appreciating their potential value– and not only
myself. What Thon Kaschler might have done with them
while he was alive!– even seventy years ago."
> The sea of monks' faces was alight with smiles upon
hearing so favorable a reaction to the Memorabilia from
one so gifted as the thon. Paulo wondered why they failed
to sense the faint undercurrent of resentment– or was it
suspicion?– in the speaker's tone. "Had I known of these
sources ten years ago," he was saying, "much of my work
in optics would have been unnecessary." Ahha! thought
the abbot, so that's it. Or at least part of it. He's finding
out that some of his discoveries are only rediscoveries, and
it leaves a bitter taste. But surely he must know that never
during his lifetime can he be more than a recoverer of lost
works; however brilliant, he can only do what others
before him had done. And so it would be, inevitably, until
the world became as highly developed as it had been
before the Flame Deluge.
That's like a constant cycle for me. The stuff that grows from it is the things that keep growing and sticking around and I don't find any other literature directly replacing it or enhancing it. When I do find things that replace a bunch of my work I'm thrilled because I don't have to do that now and I can focus my energy on the other threads. Every once in a while I get competitive and it hurts, but if I'm being honest if I find something that gets me that way I've got a special appreciation for that moment.
