Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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The Importance of Connections

I ran across this quote from Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum via ONFOCUS:

“No piece of information is superior to any other. Power lies in having them all on file and then finding the connections. There are always connections; you have only to want to find them.”

This is the power of the internet. It is not in the information, but in the connections between them. I find that I tend to learn more from my search and subsequent linking from one page to another than I do from actually reading any one entry. It is the experience that sheds light on the subject, not necessarily any one entry. The medium is truly the message. It is an interlinked world we live in and the internet brings that fact to the forefront. “There are always connections; you have only to want to find them.” Makes me want to read Eco.

August 11, 2004