Environment and DNAs

Paul Graham has some really interesting essays, not to mention the wonderful "Hackers and Painters" book.

This one regarding Taste and Design is enjoyable and informative line by line:
http://paulgraham.com/taste.html

One interesting paragraph is:
"There are roughly a thousand times as many people alive in the US right now as lived in Florence during the fifteenth century. A thousand Leonardos and a thousand Michelangelos walk among us. If DNA ruled, we should be greeted daily by artistic marvels. We aren't, and the reason is that to make Leonardo you need more than his innate ability. You also need Florence in 1450."

We were having a discussion with guys at work the other day about whether we still have people like Newton or Beethoven around and some thought we do and some thought we don't but the interesting point here is that even if we do, we probably don't have the atmosphere they were in, or at least the environment is not as focused as theirs were, today we live in a world of definitions and rules and regulations that confine us and define us so much that it might be hard to float freely in a dedicated atmosphere were it can nurture talents such as Newton, Beethoven or Michelangelo.