First principle of epistemology (confidence in belief must equal evidence in support) is the foundation of gaining agency over one's beliefs, but incompatible with many religious narratives. If you get through the school of mysteries, do they eventually tell you this secret?
Sometimes a genius pulls the pieces together. But even then, simultaneous invention shows that the genius stood on the shoulder of thousands of pretty smart people.
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Newton was a genius—but Leibnitz invented calculus mostly-independently at the same time. And Newton’s PhD thesis advisor developed much more of the theory than is generally known: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Barrow …
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I wrote about how new understandings emerge, and what conditions make that more or less likely, here:https://meaningness.com/metablog/upgrade-your-cargo-cult …
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