From Sharp Tech 2026-09-18 “Doom Debates Go Mainstream, AI Religion and the Economic Future, Several Vectors of the China Question” (edited for concision):
We’re gonna have to read a famous quote. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Actually, that’s the only part people ever read, though. I actually think the full quote is really good and relevant to this. “With consistency, a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts everything you said today. Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.”
Actually, an unbelievable quote. It’s a shame the 1st line is so good that that’s the only thing that people hear.
Truth, but as I noted in an email to the show (no double indent):
Apropos of Emerson, what comes before his famous line is just as profound as what comes after.
The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.
I’d never read this part before. Incredible. The revulsion many people feel for LLM output is, I think, subconscious detection of the training to not disappoint. Obsequiousness is off-putting to intelligent minds, but alas, although “AIs” are incredible tools they are neither intelligent nor minds.
But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this monstrous corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day.
Words to live by. American legend. I think I need to add this to the about page.