Thanks, Gutenberg–But We're Too Pressed for Time to Read

The First Law of Technology says we invariably overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies while underestimating their longer-term effects. The invention of printing in the 15th century had an extraordinary short-term impact: Though scholars argue about the precise number, within 40 years of the first Gutenberg Bible, between 8 million and 24 million books, representing 30,000 titles, had been printed and published. To those around at the time, it seemed like a pretty big deal.

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