Albert Einstein once said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” When it comes to trying something new, chances are that a lot of mistakes are going to be made a long the way. A person first learning to play tennis is not going to become a professional overnight. It is possible that they will swing and miss the ball a couple of times, they will undoubtedly hit the ball into the net, and they might not have the proper racket. It is going to take some time before a player becomes good at tennis. It is going to take time before anyone becomes good at something. And in this time, we can recover from mistakes. However, author of “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” James Diamond writes about a mistake that we have not recovered from and may never recover from. Diamond's article is about how the agricultural revolution was the worst mistake in the history of the human race. He starts off by saying, “adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe,” (1). He talks about this “catastrophe” by using progressivist and revisionist views. The progressivist view claims that the lives of hunter-gatherers were improved when they shifted to farming. Farming provided more food, which meant more mouths were being fed. But, this was hard to prove and was then challenged by the revisionist view that Diamond talks about. He says that the revisionists were thinking the opposite. They
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” I agree with this statement, because everyone makes a mistake at least once in their life. All a mistake does is show that you are human. What matters is what you do with your mistake.
Jared Diamond, in his article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human race”, explains that the worst mistake that humans made was the decision to change from a hunter gatherer society into an agriculture society. Jared Diamond gives evidence of how switching from an agricultural society was a bad mistake. Many believe that adopting an agricultural society and leaving the hunter gatherer society was the way to a more qualitative and sustainable lifestyle. As Diamond says, it is true that because this society was adopted and evolved because we have longer lifespans and live better now than how people lived back in the old days. But Diamond`s claim that the hunter gatherer society gave humans more benefits individually than what the agricultural society had to offer is agreeable.
In Jared Diamond’s “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” he kicks off by telling readers the negative effects agriculture has placed on our world that still follows us today. He believes that “with agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism that curse our existence” and that this will continue on until a change occurs (Diamond1). He explains the progressivist perspective as well but uses their reasoning as a way to back up his. Diamond is correct that human’s worst mistake is beginning agriculture because more problems occurred than it actually solved and humans are not better off this way.
A: The difference between the progressivist view and the revisionist view is that the progressivist view holds a more positive attitude upon human population adapting to agriculture. From the progressivist’s mindset, agriculture is a skilled way to get more foods and required less amount of work. The progressivist also claimed adaption to agricultural gave humans free time to invent the Parthenon and B minor mass. On the contrary, the revisionist view holds a negative outlook on agriculture. They argued that farmers dedicated more time to work for foods, compared to hunter-gatherers. In addition, they claimed hunter-gatherers contained more nutritions in their bodies because their diet consists of more variety of foods. While farmers mainly feed on crops.
One of the most significant mile-stones in the human race is agriculture. Ten-thousand years ago, the practice of farming, cultivating land and soil to produce crops, and domesticating and rearing animals to produce food, wool and other products, opened a door for the beginning of civilization. In the article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”, written by Jared Diamond, Diamond contradicts the fact that human history has been a long tale of progress. He argues that agriculture is the reason that the human race is cursed with social and sexual inequality, disease, and despotism. Diamond uses many examples to prove his statement.
Whether mistakes are minor and forgotten within a day or so drastic they are remembered for years’ mistakes are one thing members of society all have in common. Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography and Physiology at the University of California, mentions an important mistake in his essay, The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race. Diamond discusses agriculture versus the hunter-gatherer method of acquiring food. He exclaims that agriculture is the worst mistake human race has made. Additionally, Diamond introduces two perspectives towards agriculture. A person may take a revisionist standpoint and “advocate revision of a system, theory, etc” (OED). Oppositely, a person may take a progressivist standpoint and become involved in
The one real mistake I believe we can make in life is to not learn from missteps
On the surface level, one could assume that when a person makes a mistake, they have failed. Most would come to the conclusion that if one does not do something correctly then they will have failed at what they were trying to do, and this shows that the first part of this quote is, essentially, accurate. However, when paired with the second part of the quote, the first part becomes clearer. A person that makes a mistake is not necessarily a failure unless they learned nothing from the mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, but that does not make everyone a failure. Being a failure constitutes so much more than making simple mistakes. Unless someone repeatedly makes the same error and does nothing to improve, they should not be considered a failure. This can be exemplified by a rather simple comparison: if one forgets to turn in one assignment for a class, they will not necessarily fail, however, if they constantly do not turn in their assignments, they will most likely end up failing the class. Repetitious errors demonstrate a lack of ability to improve one’s self which probably shows a lack of caring. This would constitute a failure because the person is doing the same thing over and over again without trying anything new that would warrant a different result. Unless a person does not attempt to correct their mistake in any manner, they should not be considered a failure, but if they have gained nothing from the experience, then they are a failure because the opportunity to learn something new was presented to them and they did nothing with it. One mistake does not define a person, but rather the ability to learn or not to learn from mistakes is what defines a
In "The Worst Mistake In Human History?" written by Jared Diamond, there are several valid points to prove that agriculture was the wrong step in human history. One example that Diamond provided would be that agriculture created a struggle for power. In these agricultural societies, people were divided into classes, the higher class, such as royals, and the lower class, such as farmers and peasants. The people in the higher class had more advantages because of their power, which means they had better care and also better food than others. Diamond states, " Among Chilean mummies from c. A. D. 1000, the elite were distinguished not only by ornaments and gold hair clips but also by a fourfold lower rate of bone lesions caused by disease." This quote
Human beings make mistakes; sometimes they learn from their first mistake, sometimes they learn after
What we eat and how we eat are imPortant both nutritionally and culturally. This selection suggests that how we get what we eat-through gathering and hunting versus agriculture, for example-has draThis seemspretty obvious.We all matic consequences. imagine what a struggle it must have been before the We developmentof agricu-lture. think of our ancestors spending their days searching for roots and berries to eat,or out at the crack of dawn, hunting wi.ld animals. isn't In fact, this was not quite the case.Nevertheless, it really better simply to go to the refrigerator, open the door, and reach for a container of milk to pour into a bowl of flaked grain for your regular
The benefit of recognising and learning from mistakes is that it can increase relationships with colleagues as they will see that you are willing to take responsibility for the mistakes you make and that you are willing to improve not to make the same mistake again. It is important to realise a mistake so that you can find ways to not make the same error. We don’t want to become discouraged if we do something wrong, so it is important that when we do make mistakes, we just take it as an experience of what not to do next time. The best way to learn from a mistake is to ask others and see how others’ dealt with similar problems.
Mr. Diamond believes the adoption of agriculture was the worst mistake in human history. The technologies used in this article are not only the
When we first started walking, we would stumble and fall down within few steps, until we learned how to walk perfectly. Mistakes are like these falls, without which we would never excel at anything. But one thing we should always keep in mind is we should never let these mistakes stop us from continuing the work. Mistakes are lessons for us, which help us grow and reach newer heights. Studies have shown that a person who has committed a mistake is always more determined and focused than a person who hasn’t. Thomas Edison came up light bulb after