We remember Rockefeller and Carnegie because of the public works they funded. If Bezos and Musk and Zuckerberg want to be remembered, build some libraries.
Do we know what they look like though? Do we know much about 2 or 3 generations back about our own family? Some people know their names but that’s about it.
If not for portraits on money, would we all easily remember what Washington, Lincoln, et. al. looked like?
I’m sure part or maybe most of the reason the titans of industry ‘s portraits don’t live in most of our memories is because there were much fewer photographs of them taken. I’m sure I have an order of magnitude more photographs of my child on my phone, then existed any photographs of Rockefeller.
Does anyone care though? Have you ever discussed family history with a teenager? That will let you know how it’s going to go. Younger generations don’t care, just like I didn’t care when I was in high school. There are going to be exceptions, but they won’t be household names. Do you think most teenagers know who Steve Jobs or John Belushi is?
Teenagers are the black hole of information. If you’re not a household name to them, you will not move on to the next generation. That’s how people disappear as household names in 2 generations.
You know their name. Just about everyone reading your comment knows their names as well. Further, when most people hear their names the first thing that pops into their head is something positive and prestigious, not the awful things they did to make their fortunes. Many of their descendants are still wealthy and powerful to this day. It doesn’t really make much difference if people spend time looking at their portraits.
In two generations well probably be banging rocks together in a irradiated hellscape and Ill hopefully be long dead.
Creating an enduring positive legacy takes effort, and neither Jobs or Bezos really made an attempt. Guys like Musk and Gates are making that effort and are likely to be remembered, although I think its pretty unlikely Musk will ever be able to restore a positive connotation to his name.
We remember Rockefeller and Carnegie because of the public works they funded. If Bezos and Musk and Zuckerberg want to be remembered, build some libraries.
Do we know what they look like though? Do we know much about 2 or 3 generations back about our own family? Some people know their names but that’s about it.
If not for portraits on money, would we all easily remember what Washington, Lincoln, et. al. looked like?
I’m sure part or maybe most of the reason the titans of industry ‘s portraits don’t live in most of our memories is because there were much fewer photographs of them taken. I’m sure I have an order of magnitude more photographs of my child on my phone, then existed any photographs of Rockefeller.
Does anyone care though? Have you ever discussed family history with a teenager? That will let you know how it’s going to go. Younger generations don’t care, just like I didn’t care when I was in high school. There are going to be exceptions, but they won’t be household names. Do you think most teenagers know who Steve Jobs or John Belushi is?
Your metric of “does anybody care?” being what teenagers know is really not relevant. Teenagers know jack all about anything.
This is my last comment.
Teenagers are the black hole of information. If you’re not a household name to them, you will not move on to the next generation. That’s how people disappear as household names in 2 generations.
History is written by the teenagers? Hardly.
You know their name. Just about everyone reading your comment knows their names as well. Further, when most people hear their names the first thing that pops into their head is something positive and prestigious, not the awful things they did to make their fortunes. Many of their descendants are still wealthy and powerful to this day. It doesn’t really make much difference if people spend time looking at their portraits.
In 2 generations, you’ll know who Bezos is? I’ll bet there are teenagers that don’t know who Steve Jobs is.
In two generations well probably be banging rocks together in a irradiated hellscape and Ill hopefully be long dead.
Creating an enduring positive legacy takes effort, and neither Jobs or Bezos really made an attempt. Guys like Musk and Gates are making that effort and are likely to be remembered, although I think its pretty unlikely Musk will ever be able to restore a positive connotation to his name.