Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Hypothesis 1: The "golden age" hypothesisThe "golden age" hypothesis says there are one or more "golden ages" from the past that were superior at producing innovation compared to today. Perhaps understanding and restoring what worked about those "golden ages" would lead to an explosion in creativity today.
Holden Karnofsky • Where's Today's Beethoven?
Good read on an important topic.
Nearly all geniuses were:
- privately educated with elite tutors
- introduced to complex topics young
- around adults instead of peers when young
Thoughts:
-great contemporary thinkers should teach th... See more
An agrarian surplus sustained urban elites and their elaborate high culture. In the towns, an artisan class of legendary skill had sprung up to cater for these elites’ material demands.
John Darwin • After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000
A certain ‘pathos’ does emerge from these stories, which suggests something amiss in parish life. The problem can be traced back to the decline of the role of the landed elite, which began as early as the 1500s. In The Agrarian Problem in the 16th Century (1912), R.H. Tawney argued that Tudor landowners changed the terms of paternalistic governance... See more
The answer, I think, is what it almost always is: that inventors are simply extremely rare. People can have all the incentives, all the materials, all the mechanical skills, and even all the right general notions of how things work. As we’ve seen, even Savery himself was apparently inspired by the same ancient experiment as everyone else who worked... See more