5 ms·
> it was pretty uncommon for most of the time in human history that some people with a vague idea were given some million dollars to build something I feel li
by CPLX 8y ago
> it was pretty uncommon for most of the time in human history that some people with a vague idea were given some million dollars to build something
I feel like that might not be true. Seems like anecdotally there's been a long history of people being funded for speculative adventures, going back centuries. The one that "discovered" the Americas being an archetypal example, but surely there were many more examples of patronage and underwriting of ideas, it's a core part of society.
- eloff 8y agoThat it happened is without doubt, that it happened as often or as easily as in Silicon Valley? Never even close in the history of the human race.
- s73v3r_ 8y agoOne has to wonder how expensive those expeditions were, comparatively speaking, to the average Angel or Series A.
- mockingbirdy 8y ago> Most people had to argue a lot to get this kind of money. That guy who found America? He lobbied for nearly a decade to get the money. See [1] and [2]. People weren't that rich back then because wealth wasn't that exorbitant in the past. We only got this wealth due to the industrial revolution and the digital revolution. Today even a slightly above-average guy in Europe is richer than most kings in the past. [1]: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-christopher-columbus https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-abou... [2]: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus-Five-things-you-thought-you-knew-about-the-explorer/MYTH-Queen-Isabella-of-Spain-sold-the-crown-jewels-to-pay-for-Columbus-s-voyage https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1010/Christopher-Columbus...