[HeadOn]

You are right, of course, there was plenty for Pharoh to do...although I'm not completely sold on the Mexican connection...

My point was that things were different then. With all that wealth at his disposal, it would only be natural to be able to command huge projects. Servants/slaves worked or were killed. If Pharoh wanted it done - it got done, even if he commanded a sand pit be dug one shovel full at a time, with each shovel of sand carried in a little pink basket. And there were no conflicts in schedule for those tasked to get it done. They truly had nothing else to do - or, more correctly, were not allowed to do anything else.

We are a microwave society with little, if any, long term vision. Would you not agree, that in the time of ancient Egypt, it was much more common to devote individual lives or entire segments of populations to accomplishing tasks - even if a man's task were to cut and gather papyrus reeds from sunup until sundown, 7 days a week, from the time he was born until he fell over dead?

[RightWhale]

it was much more common to devote individual lives or entire segments of populations to accomplishing tasks

Some people still do that. It's not so common in our short-attention-span society, but there are dedicated individuals. Not talking about becoming Nerevarine in Morrowind, but about slogging through math and becoming a physicist or engineer. But there is no Pharoah to make people concentrate their efforts, it's an individual effort and the only reason we make progress as a group.