> Many Cathedrals were built over more than a century. An example is Notre Dame, over 1163-1345.
Or Cologne Cathedral, which took more than 600 years to complete. Though actual build times were a bit shorter (1248–1560, 1842–1880).
Slow
191–200 of 238 posts
Re: Slow
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? It's very easy to get people to plant trees for you. Just give a gardener, even a very old one, some money and they'll do it for you.
No amount of money allows the gardener to plant it in the past. You can pay money now to plant tree now whose benefit will be reaped 100 years down the line. Also, tree is symbolic so no point in going in details of tree growth.
The best to plant that tree is 50 years ago. The second best time is now. Just go plant it.
Re: Slow
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
When they started building cathedrals they knew they weren't going to see it finished. They did it anyway. That's the point.
As I recall, Gaudi wasn't even finished with the design when the construction started. He kept working at it until his death.
When people complained about the time scale, Gaudi famously replied that his client was in no hurry.
Re: Slow
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Long-term planning on a colossal scale (like nation-state-level) (or even on a not-so-colossal scale - think of how many plans YOU have made and how they turned out) is pointless because of black swans Sure, having a general idea of where you want things to go is fine, and everyone already does that; but when a government starts thinking that they should set a concrete goal X and they should do Y to achieve it, it's…
I think the way that democratic governments can achieve these long-term plans is by establishing (or using existing) entities to complete these goals on their behalf. An example that comes to mind is the Apollo program: JFK announced a national goal to land a man on the moon in 1961 and this was finally achieved in 1969 - two presidencies (Johnson, Nixon) and one change of party (Dem->Rep) later - with NASA being tha…
Yes, but this sort of thing seems increasingly unlikely in an ever more partisan world. Especially when would-be autocrats are wrecking as many institutions as they can.
Re: Slow
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon Musk is working towards getting humanity to Mars in the low chance Earth becomes uninhabitable, and he'll never live to see the Mars dream become a reality even if everything goes as planned. But I guess that doesn't fit the common narratives about a man that isn't a cartoon but a flawed human with strengths and weaknesses. This is why we don't hear of great men anymore: We only hear about them when they're long…
He is not doing that.
Re: Slow
#196The point of https://patrickcollison.com/fast is not that everything has to be fast, but that you can probably do it faster than you think. Quoting https://nat.org/: "time is the denominator"
Re: Slow
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which defines why American society seems to be F'ed of late. Decades of short term rewards combined with a baby boomer population looking at their last hoorah and declining relevance. Most of the old people I interact seem to be in a state of denial about soon not being here.
Greatness seems to come from long term vision, and with success that vision collapses to short term gains. It’s cultural. Why does that happen and how do you prevent it?
I don't know (not a philosopher or politician or whatnot), but I think great steps were taken when countries introduced a constitution; the US was one of the first modern countries 250 years ago. I think a constitution is that long-term vision, setting a country's morals and values in writing, spanning multiple generations and administrations.
Of course, it can never be set in stone because morals and values evolve; things like equal rights for PoC and women were only added later on, and they seem unsteady at best right now.
The other candidates for long-term vision (but not necessarily success) is organized religion (e.g. Holy Roman Empire) and generational authoritarianism (e.g. kingdoms/empires, North Korea). There's also an in-between with China's 5-year plans, where they make plans (or, feel like they do, I don't even know lol) instead of trying to make big changes one legislation or one budget term at a time.
Re: Slow
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
"A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit" - Paraphrased from Elton Trueblood
Which defines why American society seems to be F'ed of late. Decades of short term rewards combined with a baby boomer population looking at their last hoorah and declining relevance. Most of the old people I interact seem to be in a state of denial about soon not being here.
What is the bad part? Still number 1 GDP.
When was the glory days? Pre 1900s with slavery? The war and interwar years?
The cold war?
Pessimistic.
Re: Slow
#199In case the author is here…
Here’s my pedant nitpicking: La Sagrada Familia is not a cathedral. It’s just a regular church, albeit a large and impressive one.
Re: Slow
#200There is a restaurant (or, perhaps, food purveyor is more accurate) in Japan that has lasted for several centuries. It's been owned by one family, I believe. When Covid hit and their clientele disappeared, they just continued to pay their staff and mostly closed operations until the pandemic was brought more or less under control. They had enough money socked away that they survived this period unscathed. I wish I could remember the name of the place.
Anyway, that's my dream - to own and run a small family business that can support the family even in times of extended crisis. I have no interest in unicorns or IPOs or buyouts or any of that.