It has been said history repeats itself.

This started off about AI, and it will come back to it, but here is a quick rabbit hole for you.

The quote RE history repeating or rhyming is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, but I think Theodor Reik might be more accurate.

Theodor Reik was a Jewish psychoanalyst who trained as one of Sigmund Freud’s first students in Vienna, Austria, and later became a pioneer of lay analysis in the United States. In 1965 he wrote an essay titled “The Unreachables” about repetition in history.

In the essay he details how certain groups repeatedly fall victim to the same trials and tribulations throughout history.

“There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with small variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.”

Harris “Kuppy” Kupperman has for the past couple of months been writing about the economics of AI and is coming up short on how the math works. He published this question of economics and people in the AI industry started reaching out and agreeing they too didn’t understand how profitability would happen.

Then I came across this graphic this morning:

The 1990s teach boom at its peak was marked by “circular financing.” Dot-com companies, customers and suppliers bought and sold from each other, sending the same money back and forth. This produced an illusion of activity, but as we now know, was not sustainable or profitable.

25 years later, are we seeing history repeat with the AI sector of the economy?

Does history in fact repeat?

Asking for a friend…