in 1997, statistician David Banks wrote an essay titled "The Problem Of Excess Genius" – why are some periods and places so astonishingly more productive than the rest? His primary examples are Athens, Florence and London + another set of minor examples (Paris, New York) pic.twitter.com/28959lVBqx
Excellent exploration of why some periods have way more creatives and innovators than others using interesting historical cases. read halfway through, come back later.
We really should be in the middle of a golden age of productivity. Within living memory, computers did not exist. Photocopiers did not exist. *Backspace* did not exist. You had to type it all by hand.
Becoming the preeminent locus of agglomeration for the world's plucky up-and-comers has been one of the US's greatest achievements and most potent advantages. pic.twitter.com/YecTSthgVx
