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So, because some people are stupid and follow slightly less stupid people for idiotic plans, the entire history of Norse navigation via Sunstones must be this!
by dkarl 16y ago
So, because some people are stupid and follow slightly less stupid people for idiotic plans, the entire history of Norse navigation via Sunstones must be this!
Your comment seemed to say that it was implausible that success in a risky enterprise might have been entirely due to luck yet attributed by many observers to skill. All I pointed out was that it isn't just plausible, it happens all the time.
- sophacles 16y agoIn the short term yes, this happens. In the long term? You all seem to not realize that several centuries of navigation successes attributed to luck stretches the credibility a bit. It's not like this was one case of luck, it was a long running thing. All the luck cases in your examples rarely last longer than years, let alone centuries. Doubly so considering the whole society built itself on the spoils of the raiders who went out on trips. Such things are not possible on just luck, there has to be an amount of repeatability there. Strongly suggested by the fact that viking raiders were so successful at returning that the ideas, treasures and people (slaves and whatnot) that they brought back fundamentally changed their society.