The History of Man…What Have We Learned?

If we view the history of man graphically as a piece of 20 foot long rope, then the first 12 feet of that rope would be the Scavenger Man and the next 7 feet would be the Hunter / Gatherer Man and the next 1 foot would be the Agricultural / Farmer and of that last foot 3/8” would be Industrial Man and 1/32” would be Technological Man.

It seems hard to believe when you look at it as a timeline.

 

Timeframe                                     Activity                                            Rope

•  200,000 years ago                    Scavenger                                       20’
•  80,000 years ago                      Hunter / Gatherer                              8’
•  10,000 years ago                      Agriculture / Farming                         1’
•  250 years ago                           Industrial Revolution                        ⅜”
•  30 years ago                            Technology Explosion                      ¹/₃₂”

Timeframe                                       Activity

•  200,000 years ago                  Run from animals
•  80,000 years ago                    Hunt animals
•  10,000 years ago                    Domesticate animals
•  250 years ago                         Mechanize animal management processes
•  30 years ago                           Maximize animal productivity

Timeframe                                      Activity

•  200,000 years ago                  Find food by wandering
•  80,000 years ago                    Find food and kill animals by planning
•  10,000 years ago                    Grow food and manage animals
•  250 years ago                         Utilize machinery to do work, buy food
•  30 years ago                           Use technology to do work, buy comforts

 

Fire → Cooking → Food Safety → Nutrition → Health → Physical Growth → Life Expectancy → Aging → Health Issues → Financial Issues → ?

Fire → Light → Candles → Lanterns → Light Bulb → “More Daylight” → Productivity → Competition → Stress →à Health Issues → Financial Issues → ?

Grunts → Cave Drawings → Words → Language → Morse Code → Telegraph → Telephone → Fax → E-Mail → Instant Messaging → 24/7 Communication → ?

Hunting → Rocks → Slingshot → Sticks →Bow & Arrow → Knives → Weapons → Swords → Guns → Machine Guns → Bombs → Nuclear Bombs → Biological Weapons → ?

Farming → Implements → Animal Domestication → Biological Experiments → Productivity → Bio Engineering → Animal Cloning → Genetic Engineering → Human Cloning → ?

Wheel → Push Cart → Horse Drawn Wagon → Motor Vehicle →Airplane → Rockets → Exploration → ?

What has changed?

• The speed at which innovation and knowledge advancement happens is approaching a pace that cannot be anticipated
• The shift has been from physical strength and skill to mental strength and skill
•  Time savings of doing a task has not become leisure time, it has allowed for even greater productivity and therefore even more is expected to be accomplished
•  Our brains still have a lot of the old hard wiring from our ancestors, so as technology changes rapidly, humans evolve at a slower pace

What’s the message in all of this?  Help your team learn and grow and evolve.  After all we are only 2 feet away from being Hunter / Gatherers.

How can you help them grow?

 

[themecolor]Dave Baney is the founder and CEO of 55 Questions, LLC. We work with successful top executives with a driving ambition to crush their competition. We help CEOs and Entrepreneurs improve alignment, communication and accountability throughout their organization.[/themecolor] 55Questions.com

 

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