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Study the Past, Create the Future — Letters to a Young Technologist

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We are all characters in a human story that is many thousands of years in the making. If human civilization were a book, we would be entering the narrative on page 6,000. No wonder it's hard to make sense of the world around us: the institutions, cultures, religions, countries, markets, ideologies, and norms that constitute "normal life" are really just a temporary stop on a millenia-long process of creation and destruction by billions of people. We would all be wise to study our backstory. The study of history is particularly important for technologists for two reasons: first, because a deep understanding of the past puts you in a powerful position to shape the future, and second, because an inadequate understanding of history might lead to technological disruption that is actively harmful. Let's begin with the first reason. How exactly does studying history prepare you to build for the future? Well, for one, history teaches you that nothing about our present-day reality was inevitabl

Study the Past, Create the Future — Letters to a Young Technologist Letters to a Young Technologist About → Study the Past, Create the Future We are all characters in a human story that is many thousands of years in the making. If human civilization were a book, we would be entering the narrative on page 6,000. No wonder it's hard to make sense of the world around us: the institutions, cultures, religions, countries, markets, ideologies, and norms that constitute "normal life" are really just a temporary stop on a millenia-long process of creation and destruction by billions of people. We woul

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