Fifth Law: All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.
Fifth Law: All history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.
The test of a good theory lies in its ability to explain the past, for only if it does can we trust what it may tell us about the future.
John Lewis Gaddis • On Grand Strategy
Epics and lore are not opposed, but orthogonal. History features both, but perhaps the twentieth century taught us to overvalue the epic aspect and undervalue the lore aspect.
Venkatesh Rao • Epics vs. Lore
The further back in history you look, the more general your takeaways should be. General things like people’s relationship to greed and fear, how they behave under stress, and how they respond to incentives tend to be stable in time. The history of money is useful for that kind of stuff. But specific trends, specific trades, specific sectors, speci
... See moreMorgan Housel • The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
Why might people in the past have been hesitant to embrace the idea of progress? The main argument against it was that it implies a disrespect of previous generations.
Joel Mokyr • Progress Isn't Natural
History is mostly the study of surprising events. But it is often used by investors and economists as an unassailable guide to the future. Do you see the irony? Do you see the problem?
Morgan Housel • The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
The nearest we get to a widespread ‘philosophy of history’ in the Middle Ages is, as I have said, the frequent assertion that things were once better than they are now.
C. S. Lewis • The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
[History] cannot be interpreted without the aid of imagination and intuition. The sheer quantity of evidence is so overwhelming that selection is inevitable. Where there is selection there is art. Those who read history tend to look for what proves them right and confirms their personal opinions. They defend loyalties. They read with a purpose to a
... See moreMorgan Housel • The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
And that’s why historical heuristics exist. They are strategies for distilling insight from all the documents, genes, languages, transactions, inventions, collapses, and successes of people over time. History is the entire record of everything humanity has done. It’s a very rich data structure that we have only begun to even think of as a data stru
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