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Is this Hacker News or /r/programming? Was hoping for a more informative discussion on one of my intellectual heroes. To me, Da Vinci is up there in the "alien
by noam87 11y ago
Is this Hacker News or /r/programming?
Was hoping for a more informative discussion on one of my intellectual heroes. To me, Da Vinci is up there in the "alien" category along with Von Neumann... there is no field in which he not only excelled, but formed theories that were centuries ahead of their time.
Not only in art and engineering, but in medicine and biology. In his notebooks you can find rudimentary ideas about evolution (in his study of fossils, he notes that different layers have different kinds, and that those at the bottom appear to be the oldest; he then notes that the Earth must be much older than his peers seem to think!). In medicine he noted that the arteries of people who suffer from heart attacks are hardened and thickly coated (another discovery that was not made until the 20th century).
There is also misconceptions about whether some of his designs worked. It was common back then (before IP laws) for inventors to insert crucial flaws into the schemes, with codified solutions that only they know, so that only they could build the product.
For example, his gliding machine, lacking a tail, will bomb. Unless you are astute enough to notice the pages where he writes down his theories about how birds use their tail to stabilize their flight!
Lo and behold, after adding a tail, the glider works: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/leonardo/glider.html http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/leonardo/glider.html
The list goes on. If you haven't, I thoroughly recommend reading more about this man. He was not just a great painter and engineer, e was truly a once in a generation mind; and all without formal training -- just his imagination and thought experiments.
Perhaps too far ahead of his time... imagine how far we'd be had further pursued his wild ideas!
His facsimiles are also available in print, and offer a fascinating insight into a one of a kind mind.
- rcavezza 11y agoThere are hundreds of books on Da Vinci. Is there one in particular you would recommend?
- zw123456 11y agoMy favorite is called "How to think like Leonardo da Vinci" http://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Leonardo-Vinci/dp/0440508274 http://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Leonardo-Vinci/dp/04405... It also has a companion workbook. Who wouldn't want to think like Leonardo !
- noam87 11y agoAside from biographies, which are plenty and mostly good, there's nothing better than being able to go to the source! All of his surviving notes are available in illustrated and annotated forms. I found them once when I was at the uni library... before I knew it hours had passed and I was still cross-legged on the floor going through them. Also "Leonardo's Universe" is great to have... full of illustrations and notes about his time.
- kolbe 11y agoIs this Hacker News or /r/wetblanket? I'm sorry a few of us saw a historical cover letter for one of the most coveted jobs in 15th century Europe, then we decided to draw parallels to contemporary life. Most of us have already been very well educated in Da Vinci's accomplishments, and rehashing them is somewhat boring. I respect your desire to do that, but it's not for everyone here. What isn't boring is using humor to show how a mind like Da Vinci's may have been overlooked by our current tech industry's obsession with brainteasers and academic pedigree. And I think there's room for both discussions without you snarking on our half. So, I hope you feel good about yourself for thinking that listing some of Da Vinci's accomplishments in this thread makes you superior to us.
- bcook 11y agoMaybe I am out of the loop and missed something, but I did not get a "this guy thinks he is superior to us" vibe from his post (and I am usually the first to notice such slights). I really like his post and he has piqued my interest in learning more about da Vinci, of whom I knew very little. Your post seems a bit harsh. Not everyone here is well-educated in the same fields. I am not even a high-school graduate.
- kolbe 11y ago/r/programming isn't well-regarded here. His first sentence was a dig at the quality of this discussion.