Lately I’ve turned the helm away from self-development, marketing and investment books to something a little different. And I have to say that I haven’t enjoyed reading this much in years. I’m currently enjoying books about human development, history, geography, discoveries and inventions the most. Of course, I’m looking at all of these things through my distorted marketer’s perspective now. I came across Erik in the last two books.
When you discover something, it’s yours
The time when you can say that you own something spam database when you find it is unimaginable to us – fascinating. In today’s society, everything belongs to someone. If we want something, we have to buy it or it will cost us. Nothing more.
It used to be more interesting and wilder. You came somewhere, looked around and there was no one there? Then it was yours. You didn’t have to check the land registry to see if anyone was there. You just stuck your flag in the ground and it was yours until someone stuck it in you.
Erik’s story is a lot about fucking
Erik the Red
Erik the Red was a guy you wouldn’t want as a neighbor. First, he the traceability of ict assets and services and his father were exiled from Norway for some mischief, and then he was exiled from the island for 3 years for a double murder in Iceland (and then the sentences are lenient these days).
Erik didn’t head back to Norway, like most people would. He went the other way, risking death or success. Today, Erik would probably be hitting casinos and playing slot machines.
But then he succeeded and came across Greenland. He discovered the largest island in the world for Europeans, with an area of 2,166,086 km². To put that into perspective, it is a country 28 times larger than the current Czech Republic.
This looks like a big win and a jackpot on paper, but there was a bit of a problem. This map illustrates the problem quite well.
Greenland is not quite as green as its name suggests.
But this is where one of the basic rules of capitalism comes in. When something is yours, you have a better relationship with it and overvalue it beyond its objective value.
And you also want to sell it to others. And how do you sell frozen, cut off and inhospitable land?
The green promised land
Well, you have to do it a bit like the Thais do with accommodation on Booking. A lot of polishing up the misery.
And the name is the key. Probably everyone would rather thailand data go swimming in the Crystal Lake than in the Mudflats if they didn’t know both options . The name is simply important. Names already play out various associations and expectations in our heads. When you read these historical figures, their visualizations will probably immediately come to mind:
The first 3 years that Erik and his companions lived in Greenland were a struggle for life and exploration. They traveled 10,000 kilometers and Erik discovered that he had a huge country, but no one to rule. Life in a community of 50 or 800 people is very different. The larger the community of people you have, the more “comfortable” life tends to be.
A campaign was needed. He went to sparsely populated Iceland, which could not even support that many people. He traveled through the settlements and conducted a recruitment campaign, greatly embellishing the way life was in Greenland. In fact, he completely lied, but surprisingly it served its purpose (like some political campaigns).
The grass is greener, the walruses fatter? Well, probably not, but once Icelanders were lured to Greenland, there was often no way back for them and they had to accept this harder life.
After a few years, Erik the Red became a respected chieftain of several thousand inhabitants, and Greenland began to prosper commercially. His son, Leif Eriksson, is considered the first Viking to reach North America.