[pav7en]

Good article. Saviano writes from the heart and avoids platitudes. He covers most everything when someone does something never done before or does it better: 1. Intimidation, in this case with threats to life. 2. Anger and a sense of irritation from the lay public for shining such a bright light on the problem. 3. Attempts at discrediting the person and hence by extension the person's work.

And the reward for this is: The immense loneliness of the person who treads the new path.

Hmm, reminds of what PG says (paraphrasing) "the modern age (in the western world) started when the good kids started to keep their candy." This seems to have missed parts of Italy.

[uses]

I don't understand this quote and was wondering if you could link to the context?

[pav7en]

Sure: "Two things changed. The first was the rule of law. For most of the world's history, if you did somehow accumulate a fortune, the ruler or his henchmen would find a way to steal it. But in medieval Europe something new happened. A new class of merchants and manufacturers began to collect in towns. [10] Together they were able to withstand the local feudal lord. So for the first time in our history, the bullies stopped stealing the nerds' lunch money. This was naturally a great incentive, and possibly indeed the main cause of the second big change, industrialization."

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html