Tela Network

... This imagining is another important good bestowed by historical reading, for it dispels the illusion that H.G. Wells called the "governess view" of history: They (the bad people) are doing this terrible thing to Us (the good people). The fallacy in it is to suppose that any large group acts as with one mind, clear in purpose and aware of consequences. Such a projection of the single ego upon whole masses is a form of provincialism that is encountered in most political discussions and certainly in all social prejudices: "If the President would only act ... if those people would only see reason...." A reader of history is cured of this simple-mindedness by developing a new sense—the historical sense—of how mankind in the mass behaves, neither free nor fatally pushed, and in its clearest actions mysterious even to itself. ... 'The Point and Pleasure of Reading History' Jacques Barzun

Chuck Prince, Citigroup CEO, 2007: 'As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing. When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated.’ ---- I see that happening in front of my eyes with AI. Companies are developing internal chatbots at great expense; employees are getting CoPilot licences. At the same time, I hardly use it. I hardly see a need for it. Outputs are unreliable, and require so much reviewing you're often quicker writing it yourself. The uses of gen AI, in my professional experience, don’t come close to justifying the investment that’s put into it. And the time invested in compulsory training programmes. But… everyone else is doing it. All the big companies, all the big professional services firms. The music is playing. And we have to dance. And when the music stops playing we will look like idiots.