date created:: 2023-09-25 13:13
date modified::
Status:: 🌱seedling

5.3f1 collector's fallacy states that collecting knowledge is not the same as having knowledge

The Collector's Fallacy describes the tendency to collect interesting books, articles etc, where the act of collecting becomes rewarding in itself. We collect with the intention of reading and making notes on them, but never do because there is something else to add to the collection.

In the Collector's Fallacy one is making the mistake is assuming that knowing about something is the same as knowing it. Just a photocopying a text is no The same as reading it, so too the act of collecting knowledge is not the same as having that knowledge.

source: https://zettelkasten.de/posts/collectors-fallacy/

A.G Sertillanges would agree with the collector's Fallacy: We must beware of a certain craze for collecting which sometimes takes possession of those who make notes

See 5.3f1a collecting knowledge has merit even if one does not produce anything with that knowledge for why I disagree with the idea that collecting knowledge has no merit

Just as 5.3f Empty notes are better than no notes at all, so too is it better to have a collection of knowledge than not to have one.

See 5.3f1b tsundoku is the art of acquiring books but not reading them for more on the Japanese concept of Tsundoku

The concept of an antilibary would stand in opposition to the Collector's Fallacy: antilibrary

See Nothing is more important than an unread library for John Waters on unread libraries.