Another factor people seem to underestimate consistently is that there are simply a whole lot more people today. It's much, much harder to stand out from a population of a billion or seven than the, what, few tens of thousands of literate white people that Europeans noticed in 1800?
Takeaway for me: screw standing out on a global or historical scale. Do good work and get creative and you might get lucky, but first you gotta do the good work and get creative.
Agreed, I'd refine it further: "simply a whole lot more people today with easy access to knowledge".
More people + more knowledge + easier access means specialization is not only encouraged, in many cases it's possible to make a living being specialized where it wasn't before.
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Another factor people seem to underestimate consistently is that there are simply a whole lot more people today. It's much, much harder to stand out from a population of a billion or seven than the, what, few tens of thousands of literate white people that Europeans noticed in 1800?
Takeaway for me: screw standing out on a global or historical scale. Do good work and get creative and you might get lucky, but first you gotta do the good work and get creative.
Agreed, I'd refine it further: "simply a whole lot more people today with easy access to knowledge". More people + more knowledge + easier access means specialization is not only encouraged, in many cases it's possible to make a living being specialized where it wasn't before.