Ways to think long-term: a cognitive toolkit for good ancestors
> Out of the ashes of World War Two came pioneering long-term institutions such as the World Health Organisation, the European Union and welfare states.<p>Comparing the length of the existence of those organizations to how long many cathedrals took to build (some decades, but some centuries to complete), I don't understand how they're considered "long-term" institutions. It seems like if we want to look at institutions that have been successful long-term institutions, we would want to look at (1) secular governments such as the Roman Republic/Empire (which arguably lasted from the republic's founding in 509 BC until 1453), or Ancient Egyptian or Chinese societies (each of which also lasted through various dynasties as a continuous organization for thousands of years) and (2) various religious groups such as the Catholic/Orthodox Christian Churches which have existed as centralized institutions for a couple millenia.