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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2529 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Any multi-lifetime space projects on the map?

I don't think it's a bad thing. Major public works projects in the ancient world were conducted at the behest of a hereditary dynasty. And thing is? They aren't that common, either. Giza took 10-20 years. The big European castles were works-in-progress depending on who was living there and how long they'd been. Chartres only took 26 years. Yeah the Great Wall was a 2000 year process but one of the tenets of Confucianism is "don't rock the boat, the past is fine, progress is an affront to God" and if the Chinese hadn't valued stability over literally everything else they probably would have landed on the moon about 400AD.

The thing about a project that happens in your lifetime? It edifies your life. Look at this guy. Mutherfucker was eight years old, hiding from the Nazis. Made it to the US, went to school, started doing secret shit straight out of college and was seventy fucking four years old before he could even tell anybody what he was doing. That's delayed gratification but I bet that if you'd told him at 21 that his grandchildren would eventually get to reap the bounty of the shit he was doing? Yeah, he'd have done it... but I'll bet it'd be a damn sight harder.