‘Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves, will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we’re gone and wonder who we were? How bravely we fought? How fiercely we loved ? . . .’
The intro-narative to TROY (2004), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0sy6-MfNVQ (No. 73 in Rankers ‘Epic Films of All Time’)
It’s interesting to look at how time changes.
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Once, being a warrior leader was the only path to notoriety. Throughout history, we have seen the priorities for mass recognition cut across inventors, artists, writers, entertainers, political, religious and business leaders, astronauts, musicians, sports persons, social change activists, charity leaders … the list goes on.
Money has always bought influence, and by association, notoriety.
Some people’s names have gone down in history as creators and inventors but frequently, they were not the people that should have been credited.
People who have been in charge of projects are often people who provide leadership, technical cohesion, and deal with stakeholders, the press, and the wider political environment in which challenging projects live.
Robert Oppenheimer was credited with being the ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’, but while he was definitely in charge of ‘The Manhattan Project’, several accounts exist suggesting defining breakthroughs made by people in his teams, whose names have never been remembered.
There are many stories about the Germans having got there first.
In written and spoken arts, ghost writers are often used. In some cases, work is even stolen without being paid for.
In 1990, an Italian music group ‘Black Box’ released a dance track ‘Ride on Time’. It shook the ground so much, live remix DJs recreate it, even now, more than 30 years later.
But it used unlicensed vocal samples from the 1980 single “Love Sensation” by Loleatta Holloway.
Once, many years ago, I was a leader under an owner in a large Telecoms/ISP company.
Another former leader who had left, was brought back. There were some parallels in solution design between both of our teams.
Several times, when I was discussing ideas with him on the way forward, he went to the owner and promoted the ideas as his own.
On one occasion, he had an architecture produced by his team. I told him it was wrong, and pointed out how it should be, through an amended drawing. He disagreed. I told him to take it to the owner, (who was also technically well versed in these technologies).
Later that day, the owner called me in, and asked me how can I allow my team to produce such poor work. The other leader has somehow claimed ownership of the print out that was mine, and claimed his own teams work came from me.
I’m not going to get into how this ended.
What is important is that I know what belongs in my own portfolio of greatness. So does he.
We see films made about legends, but do the films really explain who they are as people?
The only thing that becomes attached to a name to give it breath through film, is some semblance of how a Producer Produces, a Scriptwriter Writes, a Director Directs, and Actors Act.
It is not that person.
Many who use a desktop computer at home or work, will be familiar with a pointing and selecting device. Some even use these by preference with laptops and tablets due to speed of movement and precision control. Everyone knows it is called a ‘mouse’, but who even knows it was invented by one Doug Englebart?
With the types of online media that have began from the end of the last millennium, we have new forms of social capital, but being built upon the same principles no different from buying influence with the senate of Rome in days of old.
The concept of paying for a premium service which will get your media in front of more eyes.
Today, many can claim to know Elon Musk as a person, far more can know him in a professional sense, and more still know his likeness and voice. None can say the same for Satoshi Nakamoto, but the question is… in a few hundred years, who will this matter to?
The tombstones of the future lie not in graveyards but in network archives.
But they are still tombstones that fail to convey the private person.
Whether warriors or not, some time we will all die.
Someday, also, there will be no-one of this life, who recalls us as somebody living and breathing.
You can’t walk away from who you are, so you have to work to make that person someone you are ok with.
You can choose whether past deeds bring you torment or solace.
Some may think me naïve, but I won’t subscribe to what another person’s version of success is.
So make peace with a legacy only to yourself.
Satisfy yourself in your final hour, that your brief struggle in boundless time was worth it.
You are your own LEGEND
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Background Sourced 25/11/23 from
Wikipedia, Ranker .com , The Guardian, IMDb, and You Tube