Professional Documents
Culture Documents
My
notes are informal and often contain quotes from the book as well as my own
thoughts. This summary also includes key lessons and important passages from
the book.
This book seeks to answer the question, “Why did the rate of progress
differ so much for cultures on different continents?”
Around 11,000 years ago all human societies were hunter gatherers.
The occupation of Australia was an incredible feat. It was the first use of
water craft and range extension by humans.
Cereal crops alone account for more than half of the food consumed by
modern humans.
The rise of indigenous food production in certain areas was the result of a
few factors. First, certain areas had plants better suited to domestication.
This led people to domestic earlier in those regions. Second, because of this
early start, these people eventually domesticated more difficult plants.
Evidence seems to indicate that all people's are capable of food production
and even modern hunter gatherers seem to be naturally moving that way.
The rise of agriculture in some areas before others has to do with the
environment, not the intelligence of the people.
The Anna Karenina Principle: In many areas of life, success is not about
doing one thing correctly, but about avoiding many possible modes of
failure.
Locations along the same east-west axis share similar latitudes and thus
have similar day lengths, seasons, climate, rainfalls, and biomes. All of
which increase the speed of innovation relative to north-south axes.
On average, farming sustains populations that are 10x to 100x larger than
hunting and gathering.
All alphabets in the modern world evolved from one original alphabet,
either in idea or actual written form, developed in the Middle East.
Writing evolved independently in a few areas, but was spread via idea
diffusion in most cultures and locations.
Most inventions are not a result of necessity, but rather the result of
tinkers and curiousity.
Technology develops cumulatively rather than in isolated heroic acts.
Even people we often associate with acts of genius like the Wright Brothers
and Thomas Edison actually built upon the work of predecessors and had
capable people who followed them and advanced ideas.
Technology finds most of its uses after it has been invented rather than
being invented to solve a foreseen need. The phrase, “necessity is the
mother of invention” is generally incorrect. (Even though some examples,
like the Manhattan Project, exist.)
Long life expectancy is one reason technology might develop and spread
faster in some locations rather than others. A longer life increases the
surface area you have to test ideas and allows you to take on longer projects
that you might otherwise avoid with limited time.
Government and religion are two of the main reasons some societies
overcame others. These shared myths led to collaboration and increased
power.
Humanity has been on a clear path from small groups to larger ones,
culminating in states, over the last few thousand years.
All human societies contain inventive people. It's just that some
environments provide more starting materials and more favorable
conditions for utilizing inventions than other environments.
Europe has always been far more fragmented than China. Even at its
peak, the Roman Empire never controlled more than half of Europe.
Prediction of history is much easier over long time spans, but basically
impossible over short time spans.