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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 differenc

by 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]

by 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]