I love World War I and the Russian Revolution - it fascinates me how the deadliest time period was also so intellectually fecund. A British writer said of the time: “War … is the sovereign disinfectant, and its red stream of blood … cleans out the stagnant pools and clotted channels of the intellect.” While he tends to romanticizing bloodshed, I think there’s something to be said about base survival purging us of overthought.