We called them this because they used tools. The first proto-humans to clearly do so.
The question that we need ask ourselves today, “Are you a tool user or a tool maker?”
Everyone uses tools. But only a few people, even with access to AI and systems of leverage, choose to make tools.
Part of the gap is failing to ask the question. It generally doesn’t occur to a productive tool user to decide to slow down, risk failure, and take responsibility by making a new tool.
But new tools are one way we change things for the better.
Homo Faciens