Does your thinking grow? Or just change?

In cleaning through my delicious bookmarks (when I started using delicious, I imported all my existing bookmarks from my browser in and tagged them as "imported" - so I could review them later - I'm 20% into a probably 6-month project to review & sort them) and I ran across this article in Slate: Microsoft's mythical man-years.

The article is interesting, but what struck me was the way the author talked and what it showed about his thinking about Microsoft & the web industry. I glanced up to the date: April 12, 2002 (I'm judging from the .../2002/04/12/... in the address). "Figures." I thought. This article is clearly written from the general thought on Microsoft & the web in 2002 (well, identifiable as early 2000s anyway).

Have you ever run across some of your old writing? Say from high school or something. It's immediately identifiable as from that era of your life, isn't it. (And not just the 4 colors used from your Bic 4-color pen [I went through a phase in college when I tried to categorize information while writing - by using colors].)

Here's my thought: if your look back on your thoughts, do you see that your thoughts have progressed & grown? Or are you just sitting in a different environment: and projecting those thoughts common to all people in your place and time?

Tuesday, July 08, 2008, 12:00 AM

tagged: 2000s, evolution, growth, history, ideas, microsoft, progression