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Comment by thesz | Hacker News Reader

  > Humans really haven't changed that much at all.

I guess you are quoting Woland from The Master and Margarita [1], the words he said in a show at the Variety theater.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

Woland is the Satan in the novel. What he said has a deeper meaning, but superficial one is most probably wrong.

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I'm sure it's been said at many points by many people, fictional or real. It's not a particularly unique insight (especially amongst historians and archeologists), though one I think that bears repeating often as it's easy to lose sight of it.

I don't know that OP was quoting a Russian satire but I'm glad you turned me onto the book, I never would have heard of it but sounds intriguing. There's a wealth of covers to choose from on eBay, Goodreads lists over 1,200 editions. I got the one with the cat holding the playing cards smoking a cigar while a topless woman sails past the moon on a flying pig. at least I think it's a pig. Published in '97 by Picador.

It's such a great book, both hilarious and sad at times. I also went to eBay to search for a copy before realizing I already own the book.

Where is ChatGPT when you need it smh think of the time wasted instead of diving deep into a masterpiece

The one translated by O’Connor and Burgin? That's a good translation.

For as well read as I am, I am not so clever to quote the works that have influenced me.

No, I am afraid that I was being more of a follower of Wallace here, I was being sincere with my words. I truly do marvel that humans really haven't changed that much at all.

I think they’re just saying that humans haven’t really changed much at all, if I had to guess they weren’t referencing any one quote. The only thing that’s really changed is the tools we can use, but we’ve made little (some would say backwards compared to certain reference points) progress in why and what we use them for.

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