economics of bootstrapping

> --- victoriatangoman
> >
> > So am I. From a study of history you can learn many
> > lessons and
> > benefit from them. In other instances, history has
> > nothing to teach
> > you if that past has no precedent for what confronts
> > you in the
> > present.
> >
> We could continue this dance for ever until our feet
> move no more. Lets just say we agree to disagree over
> this point.

> The only advice he ever gave me on how to become
> better in chess was to read and understand The Art of
> War by Sun Tze. This was probably one of the greatest
> bits of advice ever given to me. Understanding many
> of the topics in this book has helped me in many
> aspects of my life outside of chess.
>
> The point of this all is that you never know what you
> may draw upon to apply to future problems. While the
> specific challenges of a space colony may be unique
> technically, you can look to the past to put together
> a framework on how you may plan and deal with them.
> Even a philsopher from thousands of years ago can
> teach you much about the importance of how to set up
> lines of supply to ensure your colony is successful.
>
> Ryan Z

Yes, a very good book. So too is Machiavelli's "Discourses", usually
bundled with "The Prince."

Have you ever read Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems." I'd say that this book has to be one of the greatest
intellectual leaps in history. I read it as a young man and found it
hard to believe that they way we think today is directly
attributable to Galileo and that the world thought so differently in
the past.

The trick to your perspective on history when confronted with the
unknown situation is to identify the correct historical precedent to
apply. Hindsight is usually a better guide to that question than all
of the historical knowledge you can summon. A known situation, which
many of us face, of course, can benefit from historical knowledge,
and it is even easy to usually identify the correct precedent.

Letting go of the topic after my last aside, :-)

TangoMan