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Notes -
We actually have copies of homework assignments from the Roman Republic, including the answers of some Great Men of History, where a standard essay question was "Could Alexander have Conquered Rome?" Which was generally analyzed along the same lines that we see historical comparisons of sports teams or boxers today:
-- Competition analysis. Alexander beat up on Tomato Cans, but was overrated for going undefeated against nobodies. Rome beat real tough guys, over and over. Alexander never faced a Hannibal, or even a Vercingetorix.
-- Stars and Scrubs vs Depth. Roman Republic produced more and better generals, it was a factory for Great Men, where Alexander was a once in a century first draft pick superstar. After Alexander died the Macedonian conquests stopped, after the Romans lost a general, or even an army, it was next man up all the way.
-- Common foes and styles. Rome beat Pyrrhus and other Macedonians who used similar styles and modeled their generalship after Alexander.
All of which is to support your point. Rome got good at this, became a Great Man Factory, by focusing on this. They went out there and built the prospects they needed to keep going out and conquering, until the gravitational pull of the Capital became such that further expansion was too difficult relative to civil war.
So many times in the NBA or MLB draft, there's a story of a player just being obsessed with the game from a young age. Bijan Robinson carried a football around like a security blanket from age 4 or some bullshit. I recall reading about a basketball phenom who walked on his tiptoes from second to fourth grades. Arnold Palmer was the son of a groundskeeper who just played golf obsessively in Latrobe, hitting balls long into the night every night.
Obsession has value.
On great men.
NBA has had a huge surge in twins. My trying to explain it is being tall is a huge filter for the nba. But one tall kid by himself won’t develop skills. He’s going to being taller than everyone else and win on that. Anyway feel like this fits with great men factories.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/4/3/24119579/twinning-time-brook-robin-lopez-amen-ausar-thompson
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I think this is what made Rome great. They had entire systems that gave great rewards for creating great political leaders and military leaders. And they started grooming people into those positions fairly young. Ambitious young men would seek status by working for a great patrician leaders and later do things like build public works, conquer new territories, or work for the government.
Come to that I think the reason for our current malaise especially for men, goes back to us not allowing men to just be men and therefore learn that they can achieve status by doing great things. Men trash talking and competing learn to achieve. Achievement gets them stays and further develops a taste for achievement. Then they go out and do more in hopes of getting more status and in the meantime build the confidence to actually try. This creates a virtuous cycle and if it’s widespread, it creates a culture of achievement.
You may have already seen it, but there are some cool articles about this here and here. The route to any high office involved a specific series of logistics and command offices. So basically anyone who made it to the Senate had some hands-on experience.
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