More on Niall Ferguson’s new book Doom
Chapter Two starts: “Are disasters really predictable? In preliterate societies, they surely were not. Life was dominated by the effects of natural forces, only some of which–notably the seasons– were rhythmic and predictable.”
I think what Ferguson is talking about here is the connection between linguistic intelligence and more general smart choices about how to deal with the world. I have said before that I don’t think language fluency really matters in personal relations, if people really like or love.
But verbal accuracy matters when it comes to dealing with the broader natural world. Words can be just as exact as numbers.