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I don't really agree with this sentence from Marc Andreessen : "There's actually very little benefit in even being aware of the history. And in fact, being aware of history might actually be a negative, because basically the world does change. The conditions on the ground do change. The markets actually do become ready for new things at a certain point. The technology really does reach the point where something is really going to work"

Indeed the world change but I think history is about understanding what happened, what was the context, under which circumstances did this business fail, or did that war started. The idea is to see if the context in which the event happened is the same today. If yes and the market was ready back then, go for it ! If the context is really different then you should be careful.

A simple example would be Michel Rocard being prime minister in 1988 and not having the absolute majority vs Elisabeth Borne being prime minister in 2022 and not having the absolute majority. Shall Elisabeth Borne use the same strategy to construct majority for each important law that will be voted. Well as Michel Rocard was just missing 14 deputees to have the absolute Majority and Elisabeth Borne is 45 deputees short, it is clear that she shall not adopt the same strategy ! The context is very much different.

Anyway, great reading suggestions, thanks for the blog post !

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