Be Your Own Historian

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have been saying a version of the same sentence for fourteen years, and the sentence has gotten shorter every year. It started as a product pitch. It is now four words: be your own historian.

Here is the long version, which I will spend the rest of this essay defending.

In a world where intelligence is cheap and getting cheaper, the only thing that stays scarce is the record of a particular life. It cannot be generated. It cannot be bought. It can only be kept. And the person who should own it is the person who lived it.

Tractor and Silo on Thede Technologies

Be Your Own Historian