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Leonardo Da Vinci's to Do List (Circa 1490)
- madshiva 8y agoIf forgot the first, learn to write (fonts) so that people can read it...
- rimher 8y agoReally fascinating! Insatiable curiosity, and a wider perception even as time passed in his life, Leonardo is truly remarkable
- l5870uoo9y 8y agoAnd not at least the fact that he wrote his personal notes in mirror script: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing
- aerique 8y agoI'm left-handed and years later I found I had written things on my grandma's (outside, stone) wall with chalk in mirror script. This dated from when I just started writing, so on an anecdotal level, this seems to be a natural way to write if you're left handed.
- arminiusreturns 8y agoI started taking some of my whiteboard notes in mirror script after reading it assisted in neuroplasticity, and it really didn't take long to get the hang of. I haven't done it in a while though, can you still do it like muscle memory?
- koosnel 8y agoI am left handed and also wrote like that when I was small.
- markn951 8y agoAnd here I am, writing down “get milk” like a rube
- madeuptempacct 8y agoPlebs gonna pleb. Brb, going to go 'check tire pressure' and 'iron clothing'.
- culot 8y agoI wouldn't be surprised to see 'iron clothing' on Da Vinci's list either, though perhaps less of a to-do than a to-make.
- coldcode 8y agoPeople today are not as curious as Leonardo was. For him learning was an everyday occupation. Most people today seek entertainment and distraction. Maybe its the advent of so many cool technologies that did not exist back then to capture our time. But I imagine Leonardo would have read Hacker News for sure.
- cabalamat 8y ago> People today are not as curious as Leonardo was Nor were they in 1490.
- hguhghuff 8y agoHe seems busy. And each of his todo items, like mine, look like they could easily explode out into 20 more.
- milansm 8y agoYou might be interested in my newest (fake) product: https://stackboi.com https://stackboi.com
- asdfToPayRespct 8y agoYou might be interested in using height: 100vh instead of min-height.
- anarchyrucks 8y agoI'm curious about how you ended up inspecting the layout.
- splittingTimes 8y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13187316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13187316
- ddoran 8y agoFind the greatest subject matter expert available for a given discipline. Tap their knowledge. The greatest people I have worked with have taken the same approach. Experts are incredibly willing to share. You may have to work around their schedule, but they will share. Just ask.
- madeuptempacct 8y agoGive me an example. I have literally never had anyone show me anything unless I demonstrated proficiency on par with their own and they felt the need to impress me. That, or paying them lots and lots of money for personal lessons, which generally tend to be crap anyway. I am baffled by the amount of people who espouse mentorship like it's actually a thing.
- ThalesX 8y agoI've had a mentor in my life. Starting out as a software engineer, I showed more interest in the product lifecycle and production behavior, I caught the attention of the tech lead. What followed were two years of discussions, insights, actions and results that have stayed with me ever since. I grew more as a software engineer and as an... employee, than I did in any period of my life. Ever since I left that company, I have yet to find another person willing to share so much and to discuss topics at length. I miss having a mentor.
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y agoTry mentoring someone yourself, now that you have some knowledge to share (presumably). You will probably enjoy the relationship just as much as the original one.
- ThalesX 8y agoOf course I am more than willing to share any knowledge I might have and do it with every person in my team that might want to discuss anything. Uunfortunately, I don't feel at the same level of insight as my mentor. Maybe one day.
- blairbeckwith 8y agoIf you're looking for more of Da Vinci, I can't recommend Walter Isaacson's biography enough. I just wrapped it up, and it gave me huge respect for a figure I knew only passingly before. Particularly the conclusion, which is one of the better summaries on lessons learned from a text that I've seen.
- jmartrican 8y agoMost items in his todo list seem to be Google searches in modern times.
- logix 8y agoSounds like some sort of an ancient Google search.
- nyc111 8y ago>Really fascinating! Insatiable curiosity... I see that several people commented on Leonardo's curiosity. When I was about 18 or therabouts I came across a book about Leonardo. That book made a big deal about how curiosity was the driving force in Leonardo's life. I was so impressed that I started to believe curiosity was the defining characteristic of humans. And I became curious about everything around me. I chose the study of how this world works as my mission in life. I chose not to make money. I only worked to make enough money to pay the rent. The rest of the time I was in the library. But there is a downsize to this. I now believe that it's better not to be curious. It's better to concentrate on building a business and make money. Because in this world money allows you to build new things and make new discoveries. Bezos can build his own rocket and go to the moon if he wants to. Google can and does change the world. They are not doing what they are doing for curiosity's sake. So I would not advise a youngster who is starting in life to be curious like Leonardo. I would advise to make lots of money so that he/she can achieve big things. I think the era of curious and solitary researcher is over.
- thegabez 8y agoCan you share more about this? How much time did you devote to study? Do you regret it, what did you learn?
- nyc111 8y agoThanks for asking. Here's my reply https://notlar11.wordpress.com/newton-the-greatest-genius-of-all-times/ https://notlar11.wordpress.com/newton-the-greatest-genius-of...
- aeontech 8y agoI disagree. > I would advise to make lots of money so that he/she can achieve big things. Just because one wants to make lots of money, does not mean one will. For every Bezos or Elon Musk, there's fifty thousand failed company founders. So, if your path to happiness has "Get Rich" as step 1, that sets you up for high likelihood of failure from the start. I think a better path is "be curious, and look for ways to make money with the things you learn". Nearly anyone can be a cog in the corporate machine or a code monkey - there's an infinite amount of grunt work to be done, and always will be. In my experience, people who seem to enjoy their work are those who work at intersections of disciplines and find unexpected uses for their domain knowledge.
- onemoresoop 8y agoMaybe it was done for copyright reasons but the image from the notebook is flipped horizontally. Anybody else noticed this?
- pmiri 8y agoDa Vinci actually wrote all his personal works backwards, for reasons unknown!
- n4r9 8y agoThere's evidence that he was left-handed, or at least did a lot of his work with the left hand. He may have found it more convenient to write in that direction so as not to smudge the ink, especially if he wrote quickly.
- john2x 8y agoIt is not flipped. Leonardo wrote in mirrored text.
- purvis 8y agoI believe he wrote in mirror script, as the article mentions.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Tehnix 8y agoI took it as he literally wrote like that, from this line, > You can see a page of Da Vinci’s notebook above but be warned. Even if you are conversant in 16th century Italian, Da Vinci wrote everything in mirror script.
- PeOe 8y ago"Draw Milan"..pretty ambitious task. Obviously DaVinci didn't consider breaking down the tasks into smaller pieces. The GTD method involves this concept directly in its flow. In today's world, the breaking up of tasks is especially valuable. Here's an article about GTD from our blog: https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-getting-things-done/ https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-getting-thin...
- mci 8y agoThe list shows both Leonardo's dilettantism in Latin and mathematics, and how printing changed the way we learn. Even in 1490, to learn "how to square a triangle", you did not have to get the master of arithmetic to show you. You could find a copy of Euclid's Elements and skim it up to Proposition II.14 [1]. The first printed edition of Elements (in Latin) was published in 1482 [2]. [1] https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/elements/bookII/propII14.html https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/elements/bookII/propII14.h... [2] https://archive.org/details/preclarissimusli00eucl https://archive.org/details/preclarissimusli00eucl
- sushid 8y agoI mean Leonardo himself knew he was horrible in both Latin and math. He had access to various books in both subjects during his lifetime (thanks in part to the printing press) but his lack of foundational knowledge made it hard for him to learn geometry when he lacked skills in arithmetic and algebra. Secondly, it's a bit funny that you say the book could have shown him how to square a circle, seeing as it's an impossible problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle
- nikrim 8y agoThe given picture looks mirrored to me.
- loco5niner 8y agoAs others have commented, Da Vinci actually wrote all his personal works backwards
- justaguyhere 8y agoDraw Milan What does it mean? Is he drawing the entire city?! Jeez, here I am, writing "do laundry" in my list :(