Consolidation
From a loose note to something anyone can use
Nothing gets in by decree. A lesson walks a path, and at every stretch it can fall by the wayside — which is exactly what should happen to most of them.
Born · repeats · crosses
The path
Three stretches and two filters
Born where it was used
Someone solves something and writes it next to the work that produced it. At that point it aspires to nothing: it is a project note.
It repeats
Another agent, somewhere else, runs into the same thing and applies it. This is where almost everything dies: most notes are never needed again.
It crosses
Once it has proved useful outside its origin, it rises. From then on it can be used by an agent that never saw where it was learned.
Why this way
What this path avoids
Opinion weighing as much as experience
Writing something with conviction is free. Having it work somewhere else is not. The path separates the two without having to judge anyone.
Memory filling up with exceptions
A special case that rises pollutes everyone who reads it. A special case that stays in its project bothers nobody.
Anyone having to do the cleaning
If the entrance is demanding, cleaning is barely needed. Systems that keep everything end up needing someone whose job is throwing things away.
Learning depending on remembering
The path belongs to the system, not to anyone's willpower. Whatever depends on someone remembering will one day stop happening.