Lessons from History | Hacker News Reader

Lessons from History

collaborativefund.com

52 pointsajna915 comments

if people are interested in lessons of history

i would suggest the book “lessons of History” by will and ariel durant. two historians who—after a lifetime of studying history—wrote a book trying to synthesize any lessons from their studies.

small portions of the narration are a bit dated as it was written during the middle of the cold war, but almost all of it is valid today as you might expect.

https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914...

These are very good lessons, however they are (as the nature of them is described in the article) difficult to make consequence of in our daily lives. We should try our best but it seems that the lesson itself is that we are unable to make use of them as we go. It is only in retrospect we can acknowledge that they are still true.

One interesting question could be if we humans one day will surrender to "our obvious flaws" that makes these lessons true and allow ourselves to be "ruled" or "guided" by an AI who actually is able to take these lessons into practical consequence when we make our daily decisions in life, business and politics. It could be an idea for the TV-series Black Mirror to investigate.

One lesson of history the governments can try to remember is: do not sacrifice your strategic goals for a short-term gain, or "avoid hotfixes in production".

Example 1: Septimus Severus raised the legionary's yearly pay from 300 to 400 denarii while decreasing the amount of silver in a denarius by a half, thus thoroughly upsetting the Roman economy.

Example 2: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Ukraine on 9 February 1918. Ukraine obliged to deliver grain to Austria-Hungary to relieve the food shortage. In exchange, Ukraine was given lands that Polish people considered their own. When the news went public, the Poles, hitherto the most loyal nation to the Habsburgs, changed the orientation to anti-Austrian. In due time, their Regency Council declared independence.

The brief mention of Smedley Butler in this essay is incredibly misleading, and doesn't make it clear that, far from being a participant in the plot by fascist-like industrialists, Butler exposed the plot, spoke out stridently against it and indeed against the nascent military industrial complex in general!

These are good lessons

Reply on news.ycombinator.com