Tim Ferriss was chatting with Tim Urban, writer of Wait, But Why. When explaining how we got here and what will happen next, Tim Urban said if we think of history as a 700-page book, “So, 140,000 years, every page in this book that you’re holding is 200 years in human history. So, Page 1 through 650 of that book, hunter gathers. If you’re an alien reading this book to understand what happened on this planet, you are bored. This is really boring. Page 650, 10,000 years ago, you have the agriculture revolution. Wait. So, suddenly, people are coming together and forming cities. They’re starting to actually form larger civilizations. They have a collective intelligence that’s starting to form. They can compare notes. They can kind of create the knowledge tower that is bigger than any one of them. Continue reading
Tag: History
The book Sapiens has been on my bedside table for about two years. I have so many books to read and just did not get to it. I started today and the first few paragraphs have me riveted. And like many stories we have heard before, the book was rejected many times before it was published. Continue reading
It was 1863 in Ireland. Thady Conlon was 36 years old. He had seen some hard years in his late teens during the Great Famine. Now he decided to travel south to find work and maybe meet someone to share his life with. He packed his meager belongings and started out. Continue reading
Yesterday was a day of firsts for the United States government. One hundred women were sworn into the House of Representatives and six women into the Senate. The speaker of the house is also a woman… Nancy Pelosi. The first Native American women, the first Muslim woman, the first Palestinian-American woman also joined the team. One hundred years after some women were first granted the right to vote in 1918. Continue reading
History has a 20/20 aspect to it. When we study the past, the heroes and the villains seem clear cut. But in the moment it can take a while to truly understand the circumstance. To speak truth to power. To put a hand out to those in need. Continue reading
Five hundred and eighty nine years ago today, at age 17, Joan of Arc fought in her first battle for the French against the English at Orleans during the Hundred Years’ War over who would rule France. The French won that battle which was a big moment in the war and led to France regaining control of their country years later. Joan went on to fight in more battles for her country and was eventually captured by the English army. Continue reading