
Why wreck a blank canvas? - gr366
http://sivers.org/blank
======
Eliezer
Study enough information theory, and it will start seeming obvious on a gut
level that a library containing all possible books has less information in it
than a library containing one book.

~~~
achompas
Can you expand on this please, so I don't clutter my own personal bookshelf
(so to speak)?

~~~
dandelany
I'm not well-versed in information theory, so this may be a misinterpretation.
But this strikes me as a beautiful truth that rewards careful pondering.

A library containing all possible books may contain all the gems of knowledge
in the world, but it also contains far more nonsense: Books full of random
letters that mean nothing, as well as real books with changes made to them,
both unnoticeable and noticeable. Such a library, though containing all
information, would not contain any information about which books contain real
information and which do not. A single real book, though, while it may contain
factual errors, can at least be guaranteed to contain the beliefs and
assumptions of its author, which is more than you can say about the infinite
library.

Look at it this way: an infinite list of strings containing all possible
strings (or even a finite list of strings containing all possible strings
shorter than a given length) contains less information than a program or essay
that I wrote, because the infinite list gives no indication about which
strings are "important", "informational" or "useful", while my one essay or
program contains concise, easily-extractable information intended for a
particular purpose.

One more example, just for fun: Imagine I'm a stupid bank robber who keeps all
the plans for my heists and the names of my partners in one Word document on
my hard drive. If the police arrest me, they have enough information to send
me and my partners to jail. However, imagine that I've written a program that
makes a million copies of my secret plan and changes the names and locations
inside all of the copies to random values. Now, if I get caught, without
knowing which document is real and which are fake, the authorities don't have
any useful information.

~~~
Psyonic
"Such a library, though containing all information, would not contain any
information about which books contain real information and which do not."

Actually, by definition, it would contain that information. But you have the
same problem finding it.

~~~
mitcheme
And it would also contain an infinite number of books which claim to list
which books contain real information, but actually contain some titles that
contain nonsense & lies and/or are missing some titles that contain real
information. So the chance of you finding a fake information-listings book is
far greater than you finding the real one.

~~~
Psyonic
So in other words, you have the same problem finding it?

~~~
mitcheme
Hmm, sorry. I thought you were referring to the book being difficult to find
because it would be mixed in with an infinite number of other books, not
specifically that there would be an infinite number of fake versions of that
book.

------
InfinityX0
So.. we should just think about doing our work and not actually do it. Because
imagining, and not reaching the finished product, is the most fun? Uh.. right.

I like the implementation in his house, but it doesn't apply to business or
creating things. In some ways, what he's done is created something by creating
nothing - but very rarely does that occur elsewhere.

~~~
misterbwong
I think you might have missed his humor. It was his way of getting you to
imagine something and then create it.

Translating it to be a bit more explicit...

The blank page starts with unlimited potential. But each word you add reduces
its possibilities.

Same thing with that business idea you've had forever.

Or that beautiful person you haven't spoken with.

    
    
      <sarcasm>
      So maybe you should just leave them in your imagination, where they're at their best.
      </sarcasm>
    

OR...

MAYBE...

The one thing that would be even better is if you...

------
nikcub
this is why I submitted my YC application without filling in a single field

~~~
jjcm
Hell I took it a step further - I didn't even submit mine.

~~~
jbail
I thought about mine a lot though. It was awesome in my imagination.

------
achompas
Awesome, awesome post. The great Ze Frank has a similar video [1] where he
calls this "brain crack" (because your mind is addicted to the idea more than
what you actually accomplish...or don't accomplish).

[1] <http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/071106.html>

------
alexyoung
Reminds me of John Cage's 4'33", a composition where no notes are played and
instead the audience is expected to observe the sounds of the environment.

~~~
leviathant
It's funny you should bring that up...

My wife and I visited the Guggenheim a number of years ago, and came across
Robert Rauschenberg's "White Paintings", which even as I am a fan of
minimalism, seemed kind of silly. All the while, we decided that we would one
day duplicate the paintings for our own house. If it's good enough for the
Guggenheim...

A year or so later, we bought four canvases, some gesso and some white paint,
and made four white paintings, and upon hanging them up, found that it
actually looked really nice. We did some research on the original "White
Paintings" series, and discovered that John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg were
friends, and that 4'33" was "a direct response" to the White Paintings.

<http://www.sfmoma.org/multimedia/audio/aop_tour_404>

It was doubly cool because while I've worked in the visual arts, my wife is a
composer. These seemingly silly paintings have come with us to our new house,
and hang in the living room, and I'm quite fond of them, even though they
required fairly minimal effort for my wife and I to create. Hooray for
minimalism!

~~~
khafra
I think you should add an old-fashioned victrola underneath the paintings,
constantly playing 4'33".

------
kristiandupont
But then, google "creativity constraints" and see how many people talk about
using constraints to foster creativity.

~~~
G_Wen
By imposing every possible constraint, not being able to do anything, you can,
ironically, achieve unlimited potential.

------
seltzered
Because you end up spending your life with no memories other than a blank
canvas, and because you won't stay alive with only a blank canvas.

"Happiness is only realized when it is shared." Communicating ideas without a
few wrecked canvases never works.

As far as i know, most artists continuously start with blank canvases. The
"wrecked" ones are the ones everyone buys to help the artist eat.

------
dzuc
Frank Stella said (during a 1964 radio interview): "I knew a wise-guy who used
to make fun of my painting, but he didn't like the Abstract Expressionists
either. He said they would be good painters if they could only keep the paint
as good as it is in the can. And that's what I tried to do. I tried to keep
the paint as good as it was in the can."

