> "hundreds, thousands, millions of people who are far better at a thing than you are" existed much before internet. Yes... but the population has exploded so

> "hundreds, thousands, millions of people who are far better at a thing than you are" existed much before internet. Yes... but the population has exploded so exponentially that 8% of all people who have ever lived in history are alive today[1], so people back then also had less people to compete with to stand out during their time. They also had less and less previous generations of people's achievements accumulated to study and be aware of to build off of as well. Also they had much more low-hanging fruit they could tackle. It's much harder to find something novel or likely to lead to a scientific breakthrough to pursue, creative or scientific, nowadays. And also didn't have an internet full of constant distractions, so they were likely more productive in their respective field(s). https://www.techopian.com/eight-per-cent-of-people-who-have-ever-lived-are-alive-today/ https://www.techopian.com/eight-per-cent-of-people-who-have-...