Obviously the kid wasn't the first to discover how to dig a ditch, but the kid discovered it for himself, figured out how it works for himself. Personal discovery.
Like the difference between accomplishing a sports achievement personally vs watching a picture of someone else accomplishing a similar goal.
For a HackerNews audience, it's like saying that using apps on a phone means you are technology fluent versus creating an app and delivering it via apk to a phone. To be more inclusive it's like being able to read on a kindle versus write a document in word.
For the Youtube example; There is a difference between watching a video for entertainment, here's how to change the suspension in a car, versus watching for discovery - here's how to change the suspension, wait, where's that bolt, I'm doing it on my car too.
Society really hasn't changed that much, though the discoverers were likely more likely to survive in wars and subsistence -- though they were also labeled witches .
So the question really goes back to fabricators, menders, and consumption. Society could go a far way if we focused more on mending than consuming.
Obviously the kid wasn't the first to discover how to dig a ditch, but the kid discovered it for himself, figured out how it works for himself. Personal discovery.
Like the difference between accomplishing a sports achievement personally vs watching a picture of someone else accomplishing a similar goal.