It is likely, by all modern accounts and metrics, that humanity has entered into an era of unlimited talent, especially when relative to any other point in history.

It is commonly questioned why the ‘Julius Caesar’ of our modern era has not arrived. Why a timeline-altering figure has not come in to unite the modern world, as done dozens of times throughout history.

Julius Caesars, hundreds of thousands to millions of them, exist. They exist in the upper echelons of Nvidia management, politicking in London, leading Shanghai Stock Exchange IPOs, and launching lobbying campaigns in DC. I also do not mean this figuratively. Genuinely, from charisma to competence to ability to wealth, they not only match but far beat all significant historical figures including Julius Caesar. Our world now has the populace and depth of systems to house a vast number of Julius Caesar-like individuals, people who can accomplish great things because there are a lot of great things that need accomplishing in our modern world.

The conditions that have historically created successful leaders throughout the past - being born at times ripe with system disruption and chaos (coups, wars, etc.), intense education through practice or study, and extreme levels of ambition are all conditions that are commonplace now. The mechanism that allowed historical figures to find opportunities to excel through conflict is now replicated by modern capitalism. People are incentivized to disrupt industry, business, and politics rather than human conflict (wars) in of itself, therefore the Caesars go to capitalistic systems. The systems civilization has now to educate, allocate opportunity, and accelerate development to the Caesars beats anything in the past, allowing them to prosper in and/or lead thousands of influential institutions across the world.

 In the past, civilizations occurred in flocks of a few million at most with a few dozen major organizations to rule. Nowadays humanity operates in the billions of people, with thousands of major systems and organizations existing to govern and provide for modern civilization. For each one of these thousands of organizations, is an opportunity for a Caesar to claim the fruit of their ambitions. This is why you will not likely see a Caesar running for President as it restricts access through age and experience. Instead, they see their opportunity in founding or joining an organization/system where their merit is directly rewarded and they get to compete live, daily, on the greatest stage through capitalistic competition.

Therefore, humanity now operates with billions of people, with tens of thousands of systems that are each helmed by their own Caesar, all vying through capitalistic competition to further exponentiate humanity’s exponential growth and the rate at which hyperabundance is afforded to citizens of humanity.

So why try?

If you’re ambitious, capable, and see yourself as Caesar-like, like I do, why try? Knowing humanity is on the continued precipice of something great without you, that no matter what you’re doing right now, someone is doing the same thing at amplified levels. Why not sit back and watch humanity prosper by itself? It’d be so easy and simple to watch the new wave of AI, technology, development, and competition usher in new ages of success for humanity, as if your effort to be a part of it would make no difference. As if your ambitions are simply thoughts in your head, secluded and isolated from the realities of the world. As if all of the current events and writings in the world are a finished product without ever needing you or your intervention. As if the statistics about inequality, racism, and nepotism directly hinder you and will forever contain any impact you could have on this world to solely inside your head. As if you could be fighting an uphill battle against God’s will itself if you wanted to intervene in this world. It’d be so much easier if you, a Caesar, would simply spectate the spectacle.

Why try?

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I would like to set a scene with something most people are familiar with. If you’re a fan of sports at all, you’re likely familiar with the 2016 NBA Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers Finals. Known to be the best NBA finals of all time, the GSW had a 73-9 record for the season, the best NBA record of all time. They were a product of perfect coaching and playstyle innovations, all analysts called them the greatest NBA team ever. The Golden State Warriors (GSW) had quite literally the perfect NBA season, breaking an infinite number of records and achieving every possible accolade coming into the Finals.

LeBron James, leading the opposing Cleveland Cavaliers, was expected to lose these finals (that they had struggled to even get to) by virtually every single analyst, NBA spectator, and sports statistic in the world. They were a worse team by every objective metric, and Cleveland in general had a streak of never winning championships. LeBron James came to Cleveland in hopes of getting them their first championship, only to be met with failure in all of his previous seasons in Cleveland. In the 2016 finals, being the closest he had gotten, he was met with the behemoth of needing to beat the greatest NBA team of all time in the 73-9 GSW.

And as expected, when the best of 7 NBA Finals series started, the GSW went up 3-1 in the first 4 matches. No team in the NBA’s 75-year history had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit and won, let alone against the greatest NBA team and season of all time. Every statistical metric, possibility, and outlook pointed to an early series 4-1 closeout.

Yet, despite this, LeBron and the Cavaliers brought the series back to 3-3 through sheer miracles. This included two 41-point performances by LeBron (if you aren’t familiar, average NBA player points per game is 10, and for great players like LeBron/Jordan it’s 25-30) and some great performances by teammates.

Yet even here, through this comeback, no one thought they would be able to close it out. The final game 7 was to be played at GSW’s home court in SF, where their home game record was 39-2 (1 of the 2 home losses were without the team’s full roster). No sane person could think the best team assembled in NBA history could lose in this situation. A home court game with an almost perfect record, the best players in the world on the team, the best coaching staff and playstyle, and all of their players in healthy condition to round off the most perfect NBA season with a championship victory in Game 7.

Yet, that isn’t what happened. LeBron and the Cavaliers won an incredibly close game. It’s likely better if you view the end of the game yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVOgGLtPtc

I bring this up with its incredibly long context just because I would like to examine this one moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zd62MxKXp8

The final game was tied in score with less than two minutes left. The GSW got a loose ball and what is typically expected in basketball to be easily scored points for GSW.

Note how far back LeBron is (top left) from the ball, and that there is only one Cavaliers member (far right) in the way of GSW. In these situations, it is typically expected that you’d let that one Cavaliers member try to block it (a very difficult block), and when they’d likely not be able to block it, that you just let the opposing team score like they’re supposed to.

LeBron James, up to this moment, had played every single second of this NBA game, except for an 8-second rest he afforded to himself in the second quarter, playing 47 minutes and 52 seconds of the 48-minute game. For context, star players on a team typically play 35-40 minutes in high-stakes games, but even that can be extremely tiring. GSW’s best players in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were only able to play 40 minutes.

In interviews after these Finals, LeBron explained that by this point in the game, playing every second and putting up historic numbers for the entire Finals series in this manner, he was running on ‘empty’. He was physically drained, with muscle pain and non-existent energy. Every step that he took, every dribble, every movement, physically hurt and he had to will himself through adrenaline to keep going.

Here, at this moment, any regular person, even given LeBron’s physical abilities, would have just trailed the ball while jogging, let his teammate up ahead try to block the ball, and let the GSW likely score and take the lead with two minutes remaining in the game. They would try to be conservative about their energy and come up with reasons about how they will just try to score on the next ball possession chance that they get.

Why try?

He had put up historic numbers. If he lost this series, no person in the world would have blamed LeBron. He had already given everything to try and win this championship. Trying the impossible, to stop this runaway ball even though he had a teammate up ahead that could stop it, would be deemed as fair practice and more than reasonable, even for NBA superstars and greats. Why try? Why try to stop this?

You’re running on ‘empty’. Your body physically aches. Every basketball analyst, every basketball star you looked up to growing up, they all said you would lose this finals series and this game. There is no conceivable reason you should push beyond your muscle soreness and zero energy to try at the near 0% chance that you could block a ball this far up ahead in transition. You’ve already come to this finals and proved your point with miracle-reigning performances, it’s not needed to break your body for even more in an unlikely-to-reward scenario.

So why try? Please, rationally and logically attempt to explain to me why you would try to do the impossible rather than rational in this situation.

In this split-two-second transition across the court, when LeBron’s teammate went to block it, all you could see was despair on his teammate’s face at his inability to block it. It was impossible at this speed against GSW’s size and ability. Yet, LeBron, running on fumes and soreness, having played every second of this game and series putting up miracle-after-miracle, sprinted with every fiber of his being behind them to try and block it so that the following scene could unfold:

Why try?