This is gonna be an odd post, where I'm envious of somebody that is dead: I'd been reading the autobiography of Peter Drucker, and how he grew up in Pre, during, and post World War I Austria, and I'm only about a fourth or fifth of the way through the book, but his life has been so extremely rich in culture and experience, so well-staffed with a cast of interesting and accomplished people that supported and encouraged him, so... seminal, in the sense the he's in a period where so much amazing historical stuff is happening all around him, and a lot of tragic stuff is happening as well, but it's the era where the the modern world is finally getting a feel for itself, and he gets to be part of this mass revolution of technology, and intellectualism, and society, and culture, that is happening not just in Europe but in America as well and he gets to see it evolve so drastically right in front of his eyes. I'm awed and envious, I'm legitimately saddened that my life so far has been so non-consequential and so irrelevant in comparison, I live in an era that just seems so plainly dull, furtive, and irrational by comparison. It feels like he just lived in an era where individual people were just at the perfect place and perfect time to become great and had the opportunity to steer history singlehandedly.
I might just be infected with terrible bias and lack of perspective, but I've always felt like I was just born in the wrong era, and this book paints a picture of a world in the throes of a golden age that I missed out on by some 90-100 years, and it kinda breaks my heart.