The Need to Read
I think there is clear historical evidence that this thesis is, at a minimum, greatly exaggerated.  Socrates never wrote, and I think he had more good ideas than Paul Graham ever will.  Muhammad was not even literate, and unless he was inspired by divinity, his ideas were extremely powerful.<p>I mean, I do personally find that writing is a powerful tool for thinking.  Maybe that means that Paul Graham and I are normal, and Socrates and Muhammad were atypical.  But maybe it says more about humans-in-our-society than it does about the essential human condition.  If humans learned &quot;by tape&quot; (as per the SF books from the Silver Age, referenced in TFA&#x27;s opening para), maybe idea-production would work along different lines.<p>I admit, I tend to agree with him about the usefulness of writing.  But I think it&#x27;s just an irrational intuition, not the clear argument he implies.