Replying to Avatar Contra

The minds you seek on Nostr aren’t valuable because they’re search engines. They’re valuable because they’ve lived something you haven’t.

Think about it: when someone shares hard won knowledge here, you’re not just getting information. You’re getting the scar tissue. The late nights. The failures that taught them what the textbooks couldn’t. You’re getting wisdom that was expensive to acquire, offered freely because they remember what it was like not to know.

Their expertise isn’t some polished, sanitized output. It’s inseparable from their specific journey, their unique vantage point, their particular blind spots. And yes, even their biases and limitations. That’s not a bug. That’s what makes it real. That’s what makes it useful in ways a perfect answer never could be.

Because here’s the thing: you don’t just need correct information. You need to understand how someone got there. You need the context, the nuance, the “yeah, but watch out for this one thing that nobody tells you.” You need their beautiful human incompleteness, because that’s where the actual learning lives.

An AI tool can give you answers instantly. But it can’t tell you what it felt like to be wrong for two years before figuring it out. It can’t say “I thought that too, until…” It can’t share the wisdom that only comes from being human, from struggling, from changing your mind.

Use the AI when it serves you. Let it handle the obvious stuff, the quick lookups, the pattern matching, the coding etc. But when you’re here for the real thing? When you’re trying to actually understand something that matters?

Seek the humans. Ask the questions. Build the relationships.

Because wisdom has always been relational. It’s not transmitted. It’s shared. And that makes all the difference.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The next step after this is to take seriously the task of defining what is of value to you and then filtering for the humans who are willing to share in ways that matter to you. Sometimes the loudest of voices are broadcasting information that is not helpful for your journey. That is why it is important to test the source by having extended conversations. Multiple back and forth. See if there is a willingness to discuss and or explain. Look for track records, lurk in the comments and examine the replies. I’m pretty they are here but not easy to find.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Time and consistency is always the best test. But you are correct.