Everything to be said has already been said…

There’s a quote by André Gide, a French author, that goes along those lines:

"Everything to be said has already been said. But since nobody was listening, it has to be said all over again"

Resonates with how, to me, most stories pretty much follow the same handful of plots, relying on the same tropes and ropes…

Or how most of the content of the (few) valid personal development books and theories I’ve come across can already be found, often in strikingly much simpler terms, in Plato’s dialogues.

Or how often new "productivity" or "task management" apps come out, as if those really were tooling issues. Many people have, for ages, managed their time and focus much better than most of us before anyone started to make sand execute logic. It's striking too how most of the best of these tools pretty much boil down to the same principles.

I figure we don’t take enough time to listen to others’ voices, wether still among us or long gone. Out of arrogance, ignorance, or bias to action, perhaps? I don’t know. But we probably should listen more, one way or another.