Amnesia? Not Really

Sometimes it seems as though we suffer from historical amnesia. We cannot seem to recall the lessons of something we have lived through before. Actually, that might not be the case. As data from Silicon Valley Bank shows, “we” have not actually lived through something before. 

Its latest market report shows that 61 percent of active venture capital firms have never experienced a recession. Just 23 percent of firms have weathered two recessions (the internet bubble and the Great Recession of 2008). About 16 percent experienced the Great Recession only.

In other words, it often is literally the case that industry participants actually have no memory of something because they were not in business at the time or were not in a position to make decisions at the time. 

So it is not actually true that active industry participants today actually have seen or lived through some events that are part of historical memory for others. It is not historical amnesia: it is youth. 

source: Silicon Valley Bank