There are way more people today and we compete with the entire world so it’s harder to stand out.
And progress is a lot more complicated today. It requires bigger teams working with more complicated equipment and more data than ever before. That means more people involved and, again, less opportunity for any one person to stand out.
This is all exacerbated by scientific journals and media companies that are more interested in making money than in making sure the best stuff rises to the top.
And people aren’t on the same page like they used to be. When there are a billion books, movies, songs, etc. to choose from, pop culture becomes less and less of a thing. People end up in their own increasingly atomized camps and can spend whole lifetimes there, not really caring about stars from the other camps.
I think very few of them would have been famous, even posthumously, if they had lived today.
In what sense? That their work wouldn’t be appreciated or they wouldn’t have reached that point of success due to society?
There are way more people today and we compete with the entire world so it’s harder to stand out.
And progress is a lot more complicated today. It requires bigger teams working with more complicated equipment and more data than ever before. That means more people involved and, again, less opportunity for any one person to stand out.
This is all exacerbated by scientific journals and media companies that are more interested in making money than in making sure the best stuff rises to the top.
And people aren’t on the same page like they used to be. When there are a billion books, movies, songs, etc. to choose from, pop culture becomes less and less of a thing. People end up in their own increasingly atomized camps and can spend whole lifetimes there, not really caring about stars from the other camps.