The joy of discovery

I'm back online and did a bit of desultory blog-browsing. Among the things I read was the Gornahoor post "The Joy of Thinking," which ends with this quotation from Descartes.

I hope that posterity will judge me kindly, not only to the things which I have explained, but also to those which I have intentionally omitted so as to leave to others the pleasure of discovery.

A few hours later, I read this in Whitley Streiber's book The Path.

There is, of course, much I am not saying about this work. I am not saying it so that I will not deny you the thrill of discovery.

Encountering two such similar formulations so close together in time was a synchronicity (though perhaps not as coincidental as it appears; Gornahoor is Gurdjieff's word, and Strieber is also a Gurdjieffian). Nevertheless, I find myself resisting the underlying sentiment. The intentional promotion of ignorance in the name of "pleasure" or "thrills" is and can be nothing but a game. The true joy of discovery comes from discovering something that could not have been communicated, either because it cannot by its nature be communicated, or because it is truly new and had never been thought of before.