Are you ever intimidated by the academy? Do you ever feel like the single Philosophy 101 course you took in college is an insufficient recommendation for you to hold your own during dinner-party arguments? "Ooh, I don't know any Latin, I probably don't stack up too great compared to scholars of the past." Okay, well, stop feeling inadequately prepared at once.

I'm not saying that life in the ancient world was easy, but I am saying that I could have probably invented the fulcrum, if someone hadn't beaten me to it by several thousand years. Ancient Ionians and Egyptians and Persians and Medes and whatnot got to invent all the obvious things; all that remains to this degenerate generation is Apps and new things to put truffle oil in. "I think we should measure shapes." congratulations,…