Here's how joining an ancient army is like joining a contemporary startup: your goal is to compete with more numerous enemies by means of superior technology. Y

Here's how joining an ancient army is like joining a contemporary startup: your goal is to compete with more numerous enemies by means of superior technology. You mobilize a group of people with promises of loot, rape and pillage, a share of the profits. The people around you take on risk for a chance to make it big. It's not as volatile as before, of course. Instead of losing your life you take a paycut, a hit in opportunity cost. Here's how joining an ancient army is not like joining a contemporary startup: then your goal was to destroy and assimilate the enemy. Now it is to be happily assimilated. --- People tend to consider the feudal system a step back from the glorious states that were ancient Greece and ancient Rome. In reality it's a step forward, employing standing armies in a decentralized 'p2p' organization rather than mobilizing armies for specific invasions. Taking away loot as the primary incentive makes becoming a soldier more of a 'normal' career and less of a risk, more stable and less reliant on big payouts. This in turn gives a society as a whole less incentive to go marauding against its neighbors. The stability we have today in the west began then, with the barbarian Germanic tribes that later came to have knights and chivalry. Before we could have stock markets and acquisitions we had to stop fighting among ourselves. :) Happy holidays everyone!