{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "one of the wildest things about history is how random dudes could just, like, talk to kings and sultans and emperors and get...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/183533504528/", "html": "

argumate:

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apricops:

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one of the wildest things about history is how random dudes could just, like, talk to kings and sultans and emperors and get stuff. Like, part of the Fall of Constantinople \u2013 an event with world-changing implications \u2013 was that a dude named Orban went up to the Ottoman Sultan like \u201chey Sultan, I super-duper promise you that if you give me absurd amounts of money and resources I can build you the biggest fuckin cannon you\u2019ve ever seen\u201d and he said yes.

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We Used To Have Efficient Government Procurement Processes

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Like the fucked up thing about the Alexander the Great/Diogenes interaction story wasn\u2019t Diogenes\u2019 sauciness, it was that the conqueror of the world came to town and was like \u201cI gotta meet this one homeless weirdo I\u2019ve been hearing about\u201d

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