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Comment by foobarbecue | Hacker News Reader

Aren't all times historic? What would you consider the least historic decade?

A decade is too big of a window. It's tough to pick one decade over another but I do think I could pick one year out of every decade over the others. To put my thought another way, if you think of society as a system, you've got a short period where the rules are being changed, and then we let the system run its course for multiple years. Eventually there are some gross inefficiencies that become too big to ignore and we have another short period where the rules are changed again, and so on.

>A decade is too big of a window.

I think that it's too small. Consider the swathes of time that are examined in history books.

It all looks amazing and fast moving when you are living it, particularly when you are younger.

The rate of technological advancement is growing exponentially, so the duration of an 'era' is becoming compressed.

You know, that's a great discussion to have at another time.

Is it growing exponentially? Personally, I'd say that changes at the margin are becoming smaller. I think that the difference between 1940-1980 is much greater than 1980-2020.

As an aside, it's funny how static music has been for years. There are numerous bands that sound like they would have been reasonably successful in 1970 (and visa versa). 1920 vs 1970 is a whole 'nother issue.

> I think that the difference between 1940-1980 is much greater than 1980-2020.

I vehemently disagree with this, but agree this is veering off topic, so I'll leave it at that.

"In some decades, nothing happens. In some weeks, decades happen."

Would you agree that 2020-2021 was a more interesting period of time than 2018-2019?

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