3 ms·
The whole "great men made history" meme is kind of discredited. It's true to a point, and it's certainly a lot more interesting (therefore easy to remember) if
by wisty 15y ago
The whole "great men made history" meme is kind of discredited. It's true to a point, and it's certainly a lot more interesting (therefore easy to remember) if you say that WWII was Hitler vs. Churchill and Stalin, but it's not entirely correct.
In science, it might just be 1% of the top 1% who make the big breakthroughs - how many times did one guy make more than one really huge breakthrough? I can think of one big fuzzy-haired counterexample.
- eru 15y agoAlso you often have the same thing invented multiple times independently, at the same time or in different times. So if by some accident we missed a genius, she would probably be replaced by a bunch of merely clever people.
- rbanffy 15y agoI wouldn't use "great", just "weird enough not to be infected by the mind virus du jour". We depend on weird people.