
The Poverty of Entrepreneurship: The Silicon Valley Theory of History - chippy
https://thenewinquiry.com/the-poverty-of-entrepreneurship-the-silicon-valley-theory-of-history/
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sharemywin
The French plantation regime, he claims, bred a “culture” of “ignorance and
superstition,” “no long-term planning,” and “low loyalty”—factors that impeded
successful slave insurgencies.

Yet at the same time, he notes that such a culture can be transformed, almost
in an instant, by a charismatic and creative leader.

Kinda make you wonder how important leaders are? It would be my assumption
that on some things a leader is nothing more than right time right place. But,
you have to wonder about people like Einstein would his theory have been
thought up by someone else at the time? or a group of people? Obviously
without a time machine no one can answer that but still something to think
about.

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sharemywin
Of the Spanish arrival in Hispaniola, he writes:

They introduced Christianity, forced labour in mines, murder, rape,
bloodhounds, strange diseases, and artificial famine…These and other
requirements of the higher civilization reduced the native population from an
estimated half-a-million, perhaps a million, to 60,000 in 15 years.

Obviously it sounds nicer when you call it “innovation” and “collective
learning.”

\--Interesting way to frame it.

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chippy
Interesting essay I thought. And whilst I think that it's as okay to view
history through a well, venture capitalist lens as it is through a Marxist
lens, the following stood out for me:

"Theirs are also visions of history that are basically uncurious about the
past—that is, they are indifferent to the idea that people in other times and
places may have thought and felt differently about the world than we do"

