It was not bloodless and Gorbachev did send tanks and army into breakaway republics [1][2][3], the soviet union was simply too weak to do anything to stop the movements to break away from Russia. Russia even lost the war with Chechnya in early 90s, which shows just how weak they were. It wasn't until the west helped rebuild Russian economy (mostly based on fossil fuels) that they were able to revive their imperialistic ways under Putin.
> Is this sarcasm? The existence of guidebooks, in itself, ensures that multiple people will do what the guide says. A "better" guidebook will just ruin those "better" experiences too.
That assumes the guidebook is the same for everyone. In today's world of smartphone apps it's not hard to imagine a "personalized" guidebook for each tourist. You could even take it a step forward and make it fully dynamic and "re-route" tourists based on site congestion - sort of like Waze for tourists.
It would still break down at scale, statistically speaking, at least for the most famous destinations (i.e. the above-mentioned European capitals). And the experience would still be sub-par: you appreciate more what you discover on your own, because your brain is reacting to your own instincts rather than being intellectually told what you should like. It's also much harder to be disappointed, because there was no guide raising your expectations.
Maybe because most countries are running deficits - they would have to take out additional loans. I guess it's the same reason poor people buy crappy shoes instead of investing into quality long-term footwear - too many current problems to think of long-term solutions far in the future.
There is no secret. People who do more observing tend to be more observant. Talk and type less and watch and listen more and in a decade or two you will be able to figure out other people's character pretty fast.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Events#January_13 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_January [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barricades