The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets

Knowledge must generalize wherever we want to use it, otherwise it’s not knowledge. Failures of knowledge often become clear when it doesn’t travel as we expect. We thought we knew something, thought we’d seen our knowledge at work, thought we understood why it worked; then we tried to apply it again, perhaps in only a slightly different context, e

‘intangible variation’

We need to face the possibility that big influences are not as orderly or consistent as we expect, that the way things turn out is bound less by observable laws, forces or common factors than by the mass of uncommon factors, the jumble of hidden, micro-influences.

is hidden trivia capable of growing magically into a whole forest of consequence?

non sequitur