Ecclesiastes 1:10 says, Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.  This is a continuation of what was last said.  We may think we have come a long way since Solomon's time, but we still chase the vanities of the world.  Those things that we felt were such great inventions twenty years ago are now outdated, but the new things are still just rearrangements of what God gives us.  We cannot look to our own knowledge and understanding to find purpose in life, and that has always been and always will be the case.  Verse eleven says, There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.  A few people are remembered today for things done in the past, but most are completely forgotten by nearly the whole world.  Whole civilizations disappeared from the world and were forgotten.  If this life on earth and our achievements here are where we place all our time and hope, we need only to look to how quickly nearly all people are forgotten to realize how vain that hope is.  Again, this is not to say that we are to feel hopeless or worthless, but we are to put our hope and faith in God.  He will never forget us.  Many people have been attempting to make themselves smarter and greater than God since the beginning of the world.  Adam and Eve sinned because they thought the could know more on their own than by following God, and that has been the same for everyone, except Jesus, ever since.  Today, there are people who think they have so much knowledge that they disprove the existence of and need for God.  Just as Solomon said those centuries ago though, it is all based on vanities, on nothingness.