Thou shalt leave valuable contributions for future generations.

Thou shalt leave valuable contributions for future generations.
- 5th commandment of the Ethical atheist fromhttp://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/ten_commandments.html

I bumped in to this interesting website recently and the 5th commandment in particular caught my eye. What they mean is that your facts are based on facts discovered by others (just like a dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees more than the giant). You should make a note of those and leave a legacy behind so that generations that follow may be able to make use of them. That is all very well and very positive advice to provide and is indeed worth emulating.

However, the reason it caught my eye was the very quirky interpretation it launched somewhere deep within me that made me inwardly smile. Having seen so many claims from people at all levels about how all knowledge future and past is contained within religious sacred books (e.g. vedas, bible etc.) I was immediately convinced that what the author meant was that do not be oversmart and do all the work yourself, but leave some contributions for future generations. What point is there if you do all the fun stuff and leave the others to have no "aha" moments of their own?

All work and no play make Jack rather dull even if Jack be the master of all trades.