At the Cutting Edge of the Cutting Edge

   Let's talk about pioneers. Not the covered wagon kind, but the metaphorical trailblazers, those who pioneer advances in their own fields. The ones who get there before anyone else. Like Marines, only with innovation instead of fewness and pride. It's like what a character says in Other//half (again with that!), we all travel in our own circles, but only on the edges. Everyone's unique, but not everyone's a leader instead of a follower, and even the leaders are also followers. I think it was that rascal Newton who said, "If I have seen farther, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants." It's not enough to be unique, then. Most people aren't even leaders at all, except for maybe on a part-time basis. A pioneer is someone who leads themselves.

   I'm glad, though, that I'm not a pioneer. It's not an, it can be awfully lonely at the top, sort of thing; it's an, I would absolutely have screwed it up had I gotten there first, kind of thing. But that was back when I was an ignorant kid. I mean, a really ignorant kid. Like, an actual child.

   For example. Had I been the first to come up with the idea for a Wikipedia article on "Coolness," I would have put, like, a picture of a dude in a trench coat shooting dudes all up, and maybe had some stuff about Batman in there. I had completely forgotten about Cool's roots in Africa, and they way it migrated to the Americas with the slave trade until it eventually settled in Japan with the dropping of the atom bomb. Cool has had a long and storied history, deeply rooted in cultural attitudes and zeitgeist, and I had completely forgotten about that. Don't get me wrong, Batman is still cool, but he's not even mentioned in the current Wikipedia article. And you better not vandalize it to make that so. Or, if you do, don't implicate me in it.

   But maybe I can put on this mantle now. I've become a little better at knowing what I'm talking about since then. A little bit of research can go a long way. For one thing, it'll put you above those who haven't done any research at all. For another, look impressive enough, and people assume you know what you're doing, right? It's one thing to fail utterly at making a new Wikipedia article. Going off in a completely new direction is another. Since no one's been there, at least you can make it up as you go along and still look like you know what you're doing. In that sense, it's the pioneers who have it easiest. Had I gotten there first, it wouldn't matter if I had screwed it up, because it wouldn't be "screwed up." It would just be.

  But, yeah, it helps to know what you're talking about.