things you notice when you read a lot of dead people's work

I'm pretty sure there's a huge gap between my rational abilities and those of people where I'm studying their works and thoughts as committed to posterity. Even though I can sometimes come up with some of the same basic theories far before being exposed to them. That concerns me. In large part because it's not clear that I'm capable of coming up with anything different, which makes the quasi-developed critical thinking skills I have pretty damned useless actually.

What doesn't concern me is that there appears to likewise be a huge gap between myself and the bulk of other people. In the opposite direction. If there ever becomes a wider use for this gap, I at least have something to do in order to try to be a bridge between wisdom and real life. Or if I become a better writer at some subjective measure. That, among the many flaws, seems to be less pressing than the actual rational capacity for cutting through the bullshit as it were. I am resolved that this isn't nearly as useful for me simply because the average person seems to enjoy surrounding their arguments with bullshit rather than having it cut through to get at the point. There's a very small audience of people who dislike being bullshitted.