We Couldn't Build the Pyramids Today - A geeky take on the capability of the human mind

Hi.

clears cobwebs*

A friend reminded me that I have a whole blog. And that I used to lose my mind a little less when I had somewhere to come and just… write.

I keep thinking about something, and you’ve probably heard people say it before

“We couldn’t build the pyramids today.”

It’s usually said like an insult. Like we’ve lost something. Like humans are not as capable as we once were. But I don’t think that’s true. If anything, I think we’ve become even more capable, just in ways that are harder to see. There are places in the world where entire cities were carved out of rock. Not assembled. Not layered. Carved.

Like Petra. A whole city shaped out of stone.

And I can’t stop thinking about what kind of mind it takes to even imagine that… and then actually do it. Because that same kind of human mind is still here. It’s the same mind that designed rockets, built launch pads, and made it possible for humans to leave Earth and travel to and orbit the Moon

Missions like Artemis II, which recently flew a crew around the Moon and safely returned them to Earth, are a part of that reality now. Not theory. Not imagination. Reality. The people behind it, engineers, scientists, teams at NASA, are not made of anything different from the rest of us.

Same bones.

Same blood.

Same fragile systems.

And somehow, within that… this level of precision exists. That’s what gets me.

Because on a much smaller scale, I see it in my own life too. My job in HR isn’t space travel. It’s not building rockets or sending people to the moon. But every day I do it, I find myself stretching. Figuring things out. Influencing decisions. Learning things I didn’t think I could grasp. If you asked me five years ago, I would probably look at half the things I do now: spreadsheets, systems, processes, and think it was rocket science. But now I’m doing it.

And that makes me pause. Because the same mind that can grow into something like that is the same mind that can still struggle.

Can choose the wrong people.

Can settle for less than it deserves.

Can worry endlessly about things it cannot control.

It’s such a strange contrast. To be this capable… and still this human.

To carry something powerful enough to build cities out of stone and send people toward the moon inside something that can still be shaken by the smallest things. I don’t know if that should make me feel proud or cautious.

Maybe both.

But I do know this. The human mind is one of the most beautiful, confusing, and quietly powerful things we carry. And if we really wanted to, we could build the pyramids today. Faster, cleaner, more precise. What took years back then might take weeks now… maybe even days.

So maybe the real question isn’t whether we could build the pyramids today. Maybe it’s this:

What else are we capable of… that we haven’t even tried yet?

Before I go… how have you been, since I last wrote to you? Is there something you’ve been learning to do lately that once felt impossible? 

I’ll be in the comments.

I listened to From Now On - Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman Ensemble

Love,

YG💜