For some reason I’ve found myself reading E H Gombrich’s A Little History of the World and I was struck by this particular passage on the ascendency of the Greeks:

Now unlike the Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, these noblemen weren’t interested in preserving the ways of their ancestors. Their many raids and battles with foreign people had opened their eyes and taught them to relish variety and change. And it was at this point, and in this part of the world, that history began to progress at a much greater speed, because people no longer believed that the old ways were best. From now on things were constantly changing.

There you have it: the birth of the innovation culture.

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