…*had* said to themselves…

…on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.

• Douglas Adams

The interesting thing is that anatomically modern Homo sapiens appeared about 300,000 years ago and did live exclusively as hunter-gatherers for about 280,000 of those years.

It would’ve been what it would’ve been…

I think saying that is just human nature. There’s not much you can do to change human nature. It is what it is.

We as a a species did not inhabit caves regularly or as a standard.

Hard disagree. It only applies for things you cannot change but should try to accept rather than stressing over it.

If you say “it is what it is,” in reference to things you could change but choose not to, well that’s on you.

Don’t search for “thought terminating clichés”

Eurema’s Dam by R. Lafferty

https://ebookslib.org/sf/12898-eurema-s-dam.html

In this comic science fiction story, the author proposes that the only people who are truly inventive are those who are too inept to do anything else. The hero, unable to do simple math, invents a calculator at age six. He goes on to create any number of useful inventions, including intelligent robots who mock him as a buffoon.

Grass huts seem a bit too involved, let’s just stand under a tree.

Did my grandma write this because it sounds just like something my grandma would write.

On the other hand, we wouldn’t have climate collapse and microplastics.

The world would be a better place.

“It is what it is” is what my boss says when he wants me to shut up

Given the state of current events, that might not necessarily be a bad thing. Well, medicines/vaccines notwithstanding.