Lots of people were way more important than history books give them credit for. Do you have a favorite?
Mine are Ibn al-Haytham and Mansa Musa. For very different reasons. Ibn al-Haytham basically invented the scientific method. And Mansa Musa was such a baller that he caused inflation when he visited places.
The biggest for me is not a person but a group. The people who settled the islands of the pacific.
I always wonder how close to South America they actually made it. I went to the Galapagos a couple of years ago and there’s no evidence of human settlement there dating back that far. But Easter Island is not that far west in terms of longitude.
It just doesn’t seem like human nature to get all the way to Easter Island and then stop. Maybe something happened and the entire society was like, “I’m never getting in a fucking boat again.” But if I had to bet, I’d put my money on people reaching the mainland and just not succeeding and creating a permanent presence. Why would Easter Island be the last stop?
James Watt, for investing steampower. Destroyed the balance of the world