
Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490) - edw519
http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/leonardo-da-vincis-to-do-list-circa-1490-is-much-cooler-than-yours.html
======
kstenerud
What the article fails to recognize is the sheer difficulty and expense
involved in acquiring information in those days. You not only needed lots of
money; you also needed status and political friends who could connect you
through their networks to people who know things about your subject of
interest. Even getting a peek into a book was an arduous affair, sometimes
taking years. There's a reason why the gentry were so fond of collecting
books.

So yes, anyone politically, socially, and economically powerful enough, with
an ounce of curiosity, would have a list such as this. I do the same for
anything I can't get within a month.

~~~
vnglst
And remember that paper was extremely expensive for ordinary people back then.
Using it for something silly as a todo list seems as wastefull as using a
JavaScript framework for just a todo app. ;)

~~~
LHopital
Your basic assumption is todo app is not as expensive as the paper in that
era. In that era paper was expensive, in this era todo app is expensive which
require a smart phone (or a computer or laptop) connected to the internet.

------
personlurking
Before I reached the last sentence, I looked hard at the image and opened it
in a new tab, thinking I could read his writing (since I learned high-
intermediate Italian). Nope, it's mirrored [1], which may have had to do with
his dyslexia.

Looking into it briefly, I came across a guy [2] who taught himself to write
like Da Vinci (note: full-screen sign-up prompt upon clicking). Skip to to the
6th paragraph starting with "Perhaps...". Being a lefty, I think I'll give
mirrored writing a go as well.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing)

[http://michaelbalchan.com/davinciwriting/?hvid=3xsKQB](http://michaelbalchan.com/davinciwriting/?hvid=3xsKQB)

Edit: from the Wikipedia link above:

"Research suggests that the ability to do mirror writing is probably inherited
and caused by atypical language organization in the brain. It is not known how
many people in the population inherit the ability of mirror writing (an
informal Australian newspaper experiment identified 10 true mirror-writers in
a readership of 65,000). Half of the children of people with the ability
inherit it. A higher proportion of left-handed people are better mirror
writers than right-handed people, probably because it's more natural for a
left-hander to write backwards."

~~~
vlad
I did my Engineering Physics I homework using mirrored writing. The instructor
didn't mind. Looking back, it's a bit risky given you're drawing equations and
arrows, not only text. I hadn't tried this before or since.

At the end of the semester, I told him physics seemed fun but I thought
software engineering was a better career choice for me. Only years later did I
find via LinkedIn that he had worked as a software engineer for ten years
before. :D

"probably because it's more natural for a left-hander to write backwards".

No, the key is that pulling the writing instrument requires a lot less muscle
than pushing it. This means that mirror writing requires 1) more muscle strain
or 2) less muscle strain than writing with the dominant hand if either the
hand is switched, or the direction (LTR or RTL). If you swap both factors at
the same time, then the strain is the same.

Left-handers who write LTR and switch direction (RTL) reduce the muscle strain
compared to their usual writing as they're now pulling the pen. A right hander
who does the same in this situation has to push the pen RTL with their right
hand, which is harder than they're used to. A right hander should use the
left-hand for mirror writing so they pull the pen like they're used to.

From this information, you can derive why people think it's easier to mirror
write by switching hands, and others think it's easier for left-handers than
right-handers to mirror write with their original hand.

TL;DR: Yes, there is initial effort to start mirror writing. But the real
difference is that in the long-term, one group will find mirror writing to
cause more hand strain than normal, and others will find it less hand strain
than normal, because in one group pushing the pen is normal and in the other
pulling it is.

~~~
alfanick
You've actualy inspired me to try mirror writing - I am left-handed (though I
can write smht with my right hand), well I found it easy, intuitive and
natural. With a bit of practive I guess I could write in mirror-mode every
time, cool!

------
brachi
> You can just feel Da Vinci’s voracious curiosity and intellectual
> restlessness. Note how many of the entries are about getting an expert to
> teach him something

Nowadays that seems less common, with the incredibly amount of information
available and readily accessible. However, I think learning from someone, even
from just a short conversation, is highly valuable.

~~~
norea-armozel
Yeah I never understood why people aren't more curious. I'm always looking for
articles about how things are made, the history of given locations, and
whatever just seems interesting. I never see anyone else with a marginally
equivalent level of curiosity especially for my age (mid-30s). Seems like
people get swallowed whole by their social lives and careers.

~~~
tpeo
What makes you think they aren't as curious as you?

They might just be into different subjects. Plus, if there's nothing that
suggests that you might be interested, they might self-censor comments about
their own hobby subjects when talking to you.

~~~
thebspatrol
I think theres a pretty obvious difference between da Vinci-esque broad-
reaching intrigue and just having a certain set of hobbies.

------
cushychicken
>[Talk to] Giannino, the Bombardier, re. the means by which the tower of
Ferrara is walled without loopholes (no one really knows what Da Vinci meant
by this)

I thought "loopholes" generally referred to a narrow upright window with wide
angles in the interior but little room at the outside. It's designed so that
you can shoot arrows out of it with a wide degree of freedom, but hard to get
an arrow into.

~~~
dreistdreist
[https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.com/what-are-those-
holes-i...](https://www.italybeyondtheobvious.com/what-are-those-holes-in-
italian-buildings-and-towers)

~~~
cushychicken
Interesting! Thank you for sharing.

------
DenisM
One of my teachers wrote a book titled "The scientific method of Leonardo da
Vinci". Unfortunately it's in Russian only.

[http://tung-sten.no-ip.com/Texts/Misc/Leonardo/Book.htm](http://tung-sten.no-
ip.com/Texts/Misc/Leonardo/Book.htm)

[http://tung-sten.no-ip.com/Texts/Misc/Leonardo/Helper/Forewo...](http://tung-
sten.no-ip.com/Texts/Misc/Leonardo/Helper/ForewordByCarloPedretti.htm)

------
orange888
If he lived today, most items on that list would be googled and forgotten
about in one morning. We take our access to endless info for granted.

~~~
INTPenis
If he lived today every single answer would be on stackexchange. ;)

------
BenoitP
It reminds of Gov Schwarzenegger recently saying he doesn't exist in a vacuum,
and that mentors are key.

A large part of these are not "do X"; they are in "get Y person to show me how
they do X".

We can be thankful of the Messer Fazio, Brera Friar, Giannino, Benedetto
Potinari, Maestro Antonio, Mastro Giannetto, Maestro Giovanni and Vitolone who
gave us Leonardo.

~~~
jaclaz
JFYI, there is a typo in the linked to text, Benedetto Po _r_ tinari, it's the
same Florentine family of Beatrice Portinari, he was the nephew of the more
famous Tommaso Portinari:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Portinari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Portinari)

The "graphical rendition" on the original site has it correct:

[http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/11/18/142467882/le...](http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/11/18/142467882/leonardos-
to-do-list)

BTW - still to be picky - the linked article is 2014, whilst the original
article by NPR's Robert Krulwich is 2011.

The whole Leonardo's Notebooks are available here (in a different
edition/translation by Jean Paul Richter):

[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Notebooks_of_Leonardo_Da_...](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Notebooks_of_Leonardo_Da_Vinci)

[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Notebooks_of_Leonardo_Da_...](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Notebooks_of_Leonardo_Da_Vinci/XXII)

------
gravypod
> Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.

What did he mean by this?

~~~
kalid
I think he meant finding the square whose area is equal to that of a given
triangle.

With our "modern" understanding of algebra and geometry, we know to do

Area = 1/2 * base * height

Area = s^2

therefore

s = sqrt(1/2 * base * height)

"Squaring the circle"
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle))
was an ancient challenge, proven to be impossible with a straightedge and
compass in the 1800s. He may have been trying to square the triangle with just
those tools.

~~~
theoh
See
[http://www.contracosta.edu/legacycontent/math/TriangleToSqua...](http://www.contracosta.edu/legacycontent/math/TriangleToSquare.htm)

------
themodelplumber
Wow, I'm actually writing a book that reads just like this list. It's meant
for INTJs, it's got 300 suggested activities--similar to those on Da Vinci's
list in terms of theme if not object. I'm about to hit publish and seeing this
article makes me feel pretty excited. I wonder if Newton also kept to-do
lists...

~~~
INTPenis
Well... what's the ISBN, title?!

~~~
themodelplumber
Haha. Well, I've got a few more steps (graphic design being a huge one) but
here's a sample. The full book has just over 300 activities to try; this one
has 50. All of the content is final, so I hope to get the book to the major
self-publishing outlets in the next month or two.

[http://www.friendlyskies.net/files/etexts/sample/300-INTJ-
St...](http://www.friendlyskies.net/files/etexts/sample/300-INTJ-Strengths-
Sample.html)

Scroll way down for the meat. Love to know what you think.

~~~
INTPenis
Do please announce the finished product on HN. I think it might be interesting
to more than just me.

------
rivaldo
I was trying to actually read the text and then I figured out Leonardo da
Vinci wrote in mirror writing (writing in the direction that is the reverse of
the natural way for a given language).

Apparently nobody is quite sure why he did this. weird.

~~~
gknoy
When you write with a dip pen (e.g. calligraphy), writing from left to write
will smudge the ink if you are left-handed.

Writing the opposite direction preserves the same convenience of movement as
right-handed writers have when doing calligraphy, and avoids smudging the ink.
It seems an elegant solution for someone who is left-handed.

------
jeremywho
That reads more like a bucket list than a todo list.

~~~
tomjen3
Wonder how our lives would be if we did more to work on our bucket lists than
our todo lists.

~~~
jamestimmins
Some of the best (perhaps cliché) advice I've gotten is not to confuse urgency
with importance. It's far too easy to constantly be busy and checking things
off of a list, while letting the really high-leverage things go unaddressed.
An antidote I've found is to book big things far out, because then urgency
doesn't come into play (I'm not worried about the laundry I need to do in
March), and I can make the decision based entirely around "importance". So
while it's easy to let a random Saturday slip away to todo list chores, if I
purchase plane tickets to Japan for 3 months out, by the time it comes around
then I'm definitely getting on the plane, chores be damned.

~~~
internaut
Have you considered getting rid of your mobile telephone? People's ability to
prioritize is shattered with these devices or perhaps their ability to use
them.

------
skocznymroczny
He didn't use org-mode?

