Scott Sumner writes:
Coincidentally, here's Bryan Caplan on intelligence vs. wisdom: https://www.betonit.ai/p/age_and_commonhtml
I can only suggest reading not the novels, but rather diaries/letters
Also, for me very instructive was My Life and Times by Jerome.
Especially his descriptions of travel in Provence before the railroads and telegraph covered it. Old roads, real darkness etc.
Something we cannot experience any more -- we can go to the wilderness, but what is civilisation on the edge of wilderness we cannot experience.
Like what it was like to live in the village in high tatras.
Yes, also memoirs are nice. But it limits the scope to people who could write. Which is an ever smaller minority as we o further in the past. Fiction alleviates the problem to an extent.
Coincidentally, here's Bryan Caplan on intelligence vs. wisdom: https://www.betonit.ai/p/age_and_commonhtml
I can only suggest reading not the novels, but rather diaries/letters
Also, for me very instructive was My Life and Times by Jerome.
Especially his descriptions of travel in Provence before the railroads and telegraph covered it. Old roads, real darkness etc.
Something we cannot experience any more -- we can go to the wilderness, but what is civilisation on the edge of wilderness we cannot experience.
Like what it was like to live in the village in high tatras.
Yes, also memoirs are nice. But it limits the scope to people who could write. Which is an ever smaller minority as we o further in the past. Fiction alleviates the problem to an extent.