The 5 Decade Rule

The Promise

Filter what is worth your attention by asking whether the underlying idea has survived fifty years of human use. The Lindy filter applied to ideas, not just media.

How It Works

• At intake, apply the filter. Favor sources where the core idea is at least fifty years old, even if the modern packaging is new.
• Find the idea grandparent. For every recent idea you encounter, locate the older idea it descends from. Read that instead, or in addition. The grandparent has more signal; the modern descendant is a translation.

In Practice

Run the filter across this year's reading list and watch how much fails it. The majority of what circulates traces its core mechanics to ideas that predate it by decades or more; the older source carries more signal, and the modern descendant is a translation.