1. firsts are overrated

So, credit where credit is due, but we always put too much emphasis on who did something first.

There’s this theory in philosophy that technological advances aren’t driven by us, but by technology itself. Humans don’t invent technologies, technology evolves. Sometimes called “technological recursion”, or “combinatorial evolution”. The latter probably describes it better, the idea is that technological advance happens by combining existing technologies. (Combinatoric theory of technological change)

Typically, looking at history, most great inventions and other advances are preceded by a race to being first. Why? Because the time was just ripe for the advance to happen. Once all preceding technologies are invented combining them for the next step becomes fairly obvious. This doesn’t mean that it’s easy to actually execute that next step (hindsight is 20/20 ‘n’ all), or that people shouldn’t get credit for it, just that we’re usually focusing too much on the individuals, as if they invented something out if thin air, when in reality they too, like all of us, were standing on the shoulders of giants, and hadn’t they done what they did on day X, someone else would’ve done it a day later.

And often the person we remember as being THE FIRST wasn’t even the first, just the best at marketing themselves. Or the most white male who did the thing.

For the birth of movies multiple technologies had to come together. Photography had to evolve from photographers mixing their own emulsions and applying them to glass or metal plates to the film rolls we still know today, and projection technology had to be invented that was precise enough to move that film at high speeds while stopping it for each frame to be projected, while also being bright enough to project the image onto a large screen without being so hot that it sets the, back then, very heat sensitive material ablaze. (If I remember film school correctly it was actually the projection that held moving pictures back.)

“First!” is always a good marketing tool though. Some filmmakers go through half their career making one debut film after another. First short film, first self-financed feature length film, first indie film with a theatrical release, first made for TV, first film with a wide release financed by a studio, etc. And all of this after a multi-year career being a writer for TV, with all the networking that comes with it.

And don’t even get me started on NFTs! Genesis here! Genesis there! Genesis everywhere! First copy of that successful ETH project on Tezos!! But with a different resolution!!! Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening in this space, but can we please celebrate things because they’re good, because they’re cool, because they’re inspiring that next evolutionary step, instead of jumping on them because they have “first” in their marketing copy. Often copy & pasted and with lots of asterisks.

“If you can’t be best, be first.”

No idea who said it first, if you ask the internet probably either Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein or Winston Churchill - the three origins of all quotes ever. Or maybe no one said it before me, in which case: first!

Would humanity really be worse off had we gotten to the South Pole a couple of days later? Had Robert Falcon Scott’s British expedition not died miserably trying to cut corners to compete with Roald Amundsen and the Norwegians? Had the Norwegians not eaten their sled dogs to be lighter on food to transport?

If you found this interesting the book “How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler” might be a good read for you. (This isn’t really based on that book and I haven’t actually read it myself yet, but you must admit: sounds pretty cool.) Oh wait, this is where I should promote myself, right? Ahm, notes.spu.io or whatever. Also Twitter and stuff. And buy this article as an NFT once the fx(text) marketplace arrives in a week or so.

Now excuse me, I have to get this finished to try to be first to publish on fx(text).