4 ms·

I have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Middle ages, thi

by somat 8mo ago

I have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Middle ages, things are a bit sleepy, dopey. Everybody is drinking beer all the time. progress runs at a slow pace. Then there is this popular new tea sweeping the scene and boy howdy does it get you up and going. Now people are waking up and doing things. Caffeine, It's a hell of a drug.

allovertheworld 8mo ago
nah coffee really didn’t do much for me, i started drinking daily at 30
- iberator 8mo ago
  Ans your parent's could? Maybe coffee improved their cognitive functions so u were born smart
bairymr 8mo ago
There is some truth to this (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_that_when_coffee_arrived_from_arabia_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_...)
scubadude 8mo ago
I had wondered about the same for nicotine, being a neurostimulant.
- onionisafruit 8mo ago
  Turns out Otis Redding was singing about the renaissance in Cigarettes and Coffee
edg5000 8mo ago
Yes, I've been thinking this as well. Although, earlier civilisations probably also consumed lots of stimulants; mayas, incas, probably countless more.
- IndySun 8mo ago
  Plus, plenty, maybe half, of humans/mammals do not respond to caffeine in positive ways. While one half are evangelical, the rest manage with water.
  - edg5000 8mo ago
    True
medi8r 8mo ago
It gets you up and going until you build resistance then it becomes a need.
flother 8mo ago
You’re in good company. Tom Standage makes the same argument in his book A History of the World in Six Glasses. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_World_in_6_Glasses https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_Wo...
arjie 8mo ago
Now the curious thing will be if people attribute the rapid pace of technological development in this new century to the advent of widespread amphetamine. A large number of Stanford students are on it, and likely many other top universities have similar properties.
johnfn 8mo ago
Erdos famously took amphetamines his whole life, and they made him fabulously productive: > In 1979, Graham bet Erdös $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdös accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the $500 off as a business expense--Erdös said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it. I think about this a lot. I drink a lot of coffee and I feel reasonably productive. But hey, maybe I should try something a bit stronger... :
keiferski 8mo ago
It’s more accurate to say that the “modern era” (1600s and onwards, the Enlightenment , etc.) was boosted by coffee, because the Renaissance was larger over by the time the bean arrived from Arabia. Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though.
- dcminter 8mo ago
  > Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though. There are accounts of discussions between Robert Hooke, Edmund Halley, and Isaac Newton in a London coffee house. It's a wine bar now and not notably highbrow :)
- AlecSchueler 8mo ago
  Lloyd's the insurance company was founded as a coffee house.
brailsafe 8mo ago
> I have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Don't forget the concentrated wealth created during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through the use and selling of slaves by the Portuguese between Africa and South America
Fricken 8mo ago
To get the coffee and other things european men had to be sent out on ships to rape the world, and they would only do that if they were drunk. The Renaissance and the Industrial revolution were built on the spoils of exploitation, of which coffee was one.

by somat 8mo ago

allovertheworld 8mo ago

nah coffee really didn’t do much for me, i started drinking daily at 30

iberator 8mo ago
Ans your parent's could? Maybe coffee improved their cognitive functions so u were born smart

bairymr 8mo ago

There is some truth to this (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_that_when_coffee_arrived_from_arabia_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1f111dq/til_...)

scubadude 8mo ago

I had wondered about the same for nicotine, being a neurostimulant.

onionisafruit 8mo ago
Turns out Otis Redding was singing about the renaissance in Cigarettes and Coffee

edg5000 8mo ago

Yes, I've been thinking this as well. Although, earlier civilisations probably also consumed lots of stimulants; mayas, incas, probably countless more.

IndySun 8mo ago
Plus, plenty, maybe half, of humans/mammals do not respond to caffeine in positive ways. While one half are evangelical, the rest manage with water.
- edg5000 8mo ago
  True

medi8r 8mo ago

It gets you up and going until you build resistance then it becomes a need.

flother 8mo ago

You’re in good company. Tom Standage makes the same argument in his book A History of the World in Six Glasses. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_World_in_6_Glasses https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3872.A_History_of_the_Wo...

arjie 8mo ago

Now the curious thing will be if people attribute the rapid pace of technological development in this new century to the advent of widespread amphetamine. A large number of Stanford students are on it, and likely many other top universities have similar properties.

johnfn 8mo ago

Erdos famously took amphetamines his whole life, and they made him fabulously productive: > In 1979, Graham bet Erdös $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdös accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the $500 off as a business expense--Erdös said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it. I think about this a lot. I drink a lot of coffee and I feel reasonably productive. But hey, maybe I should try something a bit stronger... :

keiferski 8mo ago

It’s more accurate to say that the “modern era” (1600s and onwards, the Enlightenment , etc.) was boosted by coffee, because the Renaissance was larger over by the time the bean arrived from Arabia. Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though.

dcminter 8mo ago
> Definitely a lot of modern ideas and institutions had their origins in coffee shops, though. There are accounts of discussions between Robert Hooke, Edmund Halley, and Isaac Newton in a London coffee house. It's a wine bar now and not notably highbrow :)
AlecSchueler 8mo ago
Lloyd's the insurance company was founded as a coffee house.

brailsafe 8mo ago

> I have a theory that the renaissance and perhaps more critically the industrial revolution that followed was in a large part driven by coffee. Don't forget the concentrated wealth created during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through the use and selling of slaves by the Portuguese between Africa and South America

Fricken 8mo ago

To get the coffee and other things european men had to be sent out on ships to rape the world, and they would only do that if they were drunk. The Renaissance and the Industrial revolution were built on the spoils of exploitation, of which coffee was one.