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I'd argue none of these individual were geniuses though. By all means they were men that made considerable contributions to society but I think they were simply

I'd argue none of these individual were geniuses though. By all means they were men that made considerable contributions to society but I think they were simply men that had opportunity and means to pursue their passions. Aristotle almost certainly never worked a day in his life. He likely benefited from patroi-cliens arrangements. His job was to think, to learn, to observe the world around him. We don't really have anything like what he and his contemporaries had today, the closest we have is career academics. Leonardo (his name is NOT Leonardo da Vinci, that would be like calling me Ryan Speedway) was again someone who mostly lived off of patrons/benefactors after his youth, which we know virtually nothing of, and had a lot of free time. He went into an apprenticeship at 14 and by 28 he was working for, arguably, the richest family in the world as an artist. Again, he simply had a lot of free time to contemplate the world around him and tinker. Benjamin Franklin read. A lot. Like really a LOT. By 21 he was hardcore networking by creating Junto and later as a Mason. Combine his reading with his mechanical knowledge by working with printing presses and being generally successful financially again gave him a lot of free time for the era, time to spend contemplating existence, observing the world around him, talking to experts in other fields, sitting around Lodge discussing various topics. I wouldn't say they were geniuses, I would say they were fortunate. They mad means of support and had free time. They had the freedom to pursue things that interested them and support systems in place to allow them to worry little about surviving and focus more on tinkering.

mygo 8y ago
There’s probably been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who had free time since Leonardo. Leisure time is a necessity, but it’s not the difference maker.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  >There’s probably been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who had free time since Leonardo. But did they have wealthy benefactors underwriting their life? Aristotle thought for a living. He almost certainly never had to worry about money, ever. Leonardo had to churn out works of art occasionally to keep money coming in. In the case of Leonardo he could pursue an odd project and in some cases get someone wealthy to finance it and as a student of art he studied human form, studied the mechanical nature of living creatures. He naturally applied that artist's eye to form and function to doodling inventions, some of which he made and some of which stayed on paper. I wouldn't be surprised if there have been hundreds of thousands of people that have doodled such machines and contraptions and simply not had the wealthiest family in the world to pay them to make some of them as novelties for court. Franklin learned about printing, ran away, hustled and started his own printing operation becoming quite a name in the printing industry then used that success to throw money at many other industries. When he died his estate was worth tens of millions of inflation-adjusted dollars. It's a hell of a lot easier to be successful at a myriad of things when you actually have the funds to tinker. Look at Silicon Valley, you see founders with multiple successful exits. It's a lot easier to get funding after you've already had a success, it's a lot easier to get press after you've already had success, it's a lot easier to get customers and attract good talent when you've already had success.
  - mygo 8y ago
    > He almost certainly never had to worry about money, ever. Neither has every wealthy housewife, ever. Nor every senator’s son, etc. If that was the determining factor, every young adult rolling around in old money should be pumping out sistine chapels and eradicating polio. It’s necessary, but it’s not the thing that makes the difference.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

mygo 8y ago

There’s probably been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who had free time since Leonardo. Leisure time is a necessity, but it’s not the difference maker.

ryanmercer 8y ago
>There’s probably been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who had free time since Leonardo. But did they have wealthy benefactors underwriting their life? Aristotle thought for a living. He almost certainly never had to worry about money, ever. Leonardo had to churn out works of art occasionally to keep money coming in. In the case of Leonardo he could pursue an odd project and in some cases get someone wealthy to finance it and as a student of art he studied human form, studied the mechanical nature of living creatures. He naturally applied that artist's eye to form and function to doodling inventions, some of which he made and some of which stayed on paper. I wouldn't be surprised if there have been hundreds of thousands of people that have doodled such machines and contraptions and simply not had the wealthiest family in the world to pay them to make some of them as novelties for court. Franklin learned about printing, ran away, hustled and started his own printing operation becoming quite a name in the printing industry then used that success to throw money at many other industries. When he died his estate was worth tens of millions of inflation-adjusted dollars. It's a hell of a lot easier to be successful at a myriad of things when you actually have the funds to tinker. Look at Silicon Valley, you see founders with multiple successful exits. It's a lot easier to get funding after you've already had a success, it's a lot easier to get press after you've already had success, it's a lot easier to get customers and attract good talent when you've already had success.
- mygo 8y ago
  > He almost certainly never had to worry about money, ever. Neither has every wealthy housewife, ever. Nor every senator’s son, etc. If that was the determining factor, every young adult rolling around in old money should be pumping out sistine chapels and eradicating polio. It’s necessary, but it’s not the thing that makes the difference.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]