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“The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings”

-Julius Caesar; Act I, Scene ii

The debate over whether Shakespeare did or did not write all the plays attributed him rages on in Academia. (Article Here) Of course the rest of the world simply shrugs and moves on. But there is a lesson to be learned from all this:

KEEP GOOD RECORDS!!!

It’s a few hundred years after the fact. There will most likely never be a resolution to this debate. It’s too late; after the fact is never the right time to go back and correct something. If that were the case, we’d all graduate with 4.0 GPAs. (Owing to our ability to go back and change all our wrong answers). If one looks at the controversy, the reasons for it quickly come into existence:

The only accurate records that exist from the 1600s are real estate and financial. Basing one’s opinion only on those records would be foolish; it’s entirely skewed.

Secondly, there are no detailed notes for the writing of the plays. No handwriting samples, brain storming sessions, or anything. Just the finished works of Shakespeare.

Everything is left up to conjucture and hearsay at that point; combined with the viral, inflammatory nature of the internet and conspiracies are born a plenty.

For a modern example of this: Look at the recent financial meltdown. If one looks at Greece and others, they were able to hide debt. It effectively rendered their records incomplete. Because of this, a small run in foreclosures sparked the Great Recession. Had a fuller picture been available, things might have turned out differently. Again, this is hindsight.

If the records had been complete, and available, more than 12 people would have picked up on the dangers that derivatives and speculation posed. But as it stands today, using trickery and distraction caused the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

While an economy can weather something of so grand a scale; a business or a homeowner, can not.

“Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
Henry The Fourth, Part 2 Act 3, scene 1, 26–31