Looking Back To Get Ahead

We dedicated a lot of space (eight pages!) to a quick history lesson in this issue.

While that might seem like a lot of real estate for a magazine dedicated to offering practical advice on how to move forward with your goals, it’s important to look back.

But don’t take my word for it. Plenty of way smarter folks have been trying to hammer home the idea of looking backwards to find a way forward, even if sometimes it’s a little bit uncomfortable.

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

“We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity.” — Stephen Hawking

“In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.” — Edmund Burke

“Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak, and as strong; as silly and as wise; as bad and good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.” — Abraham Lincoln

“We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Looking back is a b*tch, isn’t it?” — Quincy Jones

“History doesn’t repeat itself ... but sometimes it rhymes.” — maybe Mark Twain, but definitely the comic book character Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy No. 2 from 2008

“The History of Food Safety” (represents a fraction of what’s come before, but it’s a good starting point. It also includes some ideas on the future of food safety and a new way to think about food fraud.

And just in case you’re hunting around for more forward-looking advice, you don’t have to be a world-renowned philosopher to find our stories on traceability tips, food industry trends for 2022 and how to do better than just winging it when it comes to bird control.