Google doesn't recognise "residue of experience" as part of a familiar quote, but the phrase itself seems to be rather frequent, at least in academese: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22residue+of+experience%22.

Funnily enough, as of this writing, the top ranked google result (at least for me) is this post.

I'm so meta even this acronym

While Redditisms leaking into HN comments are usually downvoted, I actually got this for the first time just now. Probably because while on HN I wear my thinking cap, and on Reddit I read mainly for amusement and don't spend the time to look as closely. So a qualified thank you, that was clever.

It was popularized by Douglas Hofstadter, the guy who wrote Gödel, Escher, Bach among other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter

vorite quote "You can often view glimpses of ingeniousness... not as inexplicable miracles, but as the residue of experience." Did he pen that one or borrow it from someone else?

Although I can't say it hasn't been said before, that's a common theme in his videos.