Ancient Quote by Yuval Noah Harari
““Every decade archaeologists discover another few forgotten scripts. Some of them might prove to be even older than the Sumerian scratches in clay. But most of them remain curiosities because those who invented them failed to invent efficient ways of cataloguing and retrieving data. What set apart Sumer, as well as pharaonic Egypt, ancient China and the Inca Empire, is that these cultures developed good techniques of archiving, cataloguing and retrieving written records.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: “The History of Knowledge” podcast, 2022
Ancient societies succeeded by developing efficient archiving, unlike many later cultures that left records unorganized.
In simple terms: Good archiving made ancient empires great.
Key Takeaway
Invest in data organization.
Themes
history
knowledge
archiving
Mood
analytical
curious
Type
historical
educational
When to use this quote
- library science
- digital preservation
- archaeology
- education
Key Concepts
information theory
civilization development
Questions to Reflect On
- What can we learn from ancient cataloguing?
- How can we improve today’s data retrieval?
A Different Perspective
Modern data overload can hinder effective archiving.
