

Letter from Da Vinci to the Duke of Milan applying for a position - ubuwaits
http://brucesterling.tumblr.com/post/59667145879/leonardo-da-vinci-needs-a-job

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betawolf33
He didn't actually complete very much while he was there, though (this was a
recurring problem for him which only got worse in later life) -- his
contribution over sixteen years was a couple of paintings [including, it must
be said, the famous Last Supper, which would rapidly deteriorate after
completion] and assistance with various pageants.

His one attempt at something lasting and challenging, a giant bronze statue of
his employer's father on a horse, was delayed many times, lying unfinished for
years, and finally put to rest by the French invasion. The seventy tons of
bronze set aside for it were appropriated for cannons, and the clay model was
used as target practice by the victorious French.

~~~
praptak
Had the Duke administered the 1% HR personality test it would surely weed out
this Da Vinci guy.

~~~
samspenc
Reference for those who haven't seen it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6288763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6288763)

------
plg
Brilliant. Notice that he doesn't dwell on his "qualifications" or his
accolades, the letter is basically:

1\. I know as you do that there are many who claim to be able to bring you new
stuff, but as we both know, they are almost all just rebranding the same old
stuff we already have

2\. I can do the following important things for you:

a.

b.

c.

...

3\. If you are skeptical of my seemingly optimistic claims, I'd be happy to
come and show you test versions which I'm sure will convince you of their
worth.

I wonder what a modern tech version of this letter would look like?

~~~
arbuge
My thoughts precisely. It's a good model for any job applicant aiming for any
non-mindless job. The thing to keep in mind is: don't just make a list of your
skills unless it's obvious how they relate to the job you want. It's always
best if you show you've put some thought into what your target company really
needs and where it's pain points are.

As an employee you're still an entrepreneur in a sense, selling your services,
and your prospective employer is your potential client.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
A researcher applying for a research job doesn't list their skills (well,
maybe as a minor point), they list projects, publications, along with
experience. The CV often looks more like a portfolio.

------
MDCore
Interviewer: So why did you leave your last job?

Da Vinci: Well, my boss was captured by the French.

Interviewer: What!?

Da Vinci: Uh ... What I mean is I was looking for new growth opportunities,
and Venice is obviously the employer of choice in this industry.

------
edw519
If it worked for Leonardo da Vinci, maybe it could work for me. The next time
I'm looking for a job, I'll try this:

"Most Illustrious Proprietor, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens
of all those who proclaim themselves skilled developers of applications of
business, and that the invention and operation of the said programs are
nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without
prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Company, showing your
Management my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and
approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things
which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.

1\. I have a sort of extremely light and strong functions and modules, adapted
to be most easily ftp'd, and with them you may pursue, and at any time combine
them with others, secure and indestructible by standard mean time to failure
of hardware and denial of service, easy and convenient to compile and catalog.
Also methods of unzipping and storing the data of the customers.

2\. I know how, when a website is besieged, to shard data onto the cloud, and
make endless variety of mirrors, and fault tolerant disks and RAIDs, and other
machines pertaining to such concerns.

3\. If, by reason of the volume of the data, or the structure of the btrees
and its indexes, it is impossible, when conducting a search, to avail oneself
of sub-second response time, I have methods for benchmarking every process or
other function, even if it were interpreted, etc.

4\. Again, I have kinds of functions; most convenient and easy to ftp; and
with these I can spawn lots of data almost resembling a torrent; and with the
download of these cause great terror to the competitor, to his great detriment
and confusion.

5\. And if the processing should be on the desktop I have apps of many
machines most efficient for data entry and reporting; and utilities which will
satisfy the needs of the most demanding customers and users and consumers.

6\. I have means by secret and tortuous scripts and modules, made without
leaving tracks, to generate source code, even if it were needed to run on a
client or a server.

7\. I will make secure firewalls, safe and unattackable, which, entering among
the hackers with their utilities, there is no body of crackers so great but
they would break them. And behind these, software could run quite unhurt and
without any hindrance.

8\. In case of need I will make big properties, methods, and collections and
useful forms, out of the common type.

9\. Where the operation of compiling might fail, I would contrive scripts,
functions, routines, and other parameter driven processes of marvellous
efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of
cases, I can contrive various and endless means of data entry, reporting, and
storage.

10\. In times of low revenue I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to
the equal of any other in maintenance and the refactoring of code public and
private; and in guiding data from one warehouse to another.

11\. I can carry out code in Javascript, PHP, or C, and also I can do in
network administration whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who
he may.

Again, the intranet app may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal
glory and eternal honor of all your customers of happy memory, and of the
illustrious house of Google.

And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not
feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your data center, or in
whatever place may please your Businessperson - to whom I comment myself with
the utmost humility, etc."

~~~
Lambdanaut
I wonder how Da Vinci would feel to know that 500 years after he wrote this
letter, it would be parodied by future men and their magical supercomputer
tech.

~~~
VexXtreme
Or that he was portrayed aiding and making weapons for assassins in a video
game.

~~~
doktrin
While there's a lot that is rather farcical about the historical backdrop
behind the (phenomenal) AC games, Da Vinci working on the development of
weaponry is not exactly one of them.

~~~
pigscantfly
In fact, he preferred the manufacture of weapons of war to the production of
works of art; Da Vinci considered himself an engineer over an artist (and
damn, was he an artist!).

------
Zarathust
Something that strikes me is that Da Vinci got the job mostly as a combat
engineer, hired to destroy enemy forces by any means possible, but ended up
creating art of various sorts and increasing human knowledge in many domains.
The military appeal he provided seemed only interesting during the hiring
process and is not what lasted across the ages.

~~~
kevinpet
Only historians care which family controlled some town in any given year. The
rest of us can't even recall who won the hundred years' war, which certainly
sounds like it would have been a big deal at the time.

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JRFuentes7
What's really impressive to me is that Da Vinci deftly sells the benefits and
features of his employ. Yes, he says he can build cannons, but more
importantly, he tells the Duke _why_ , "with which to hurl small stones like
hail, and of which the smoke causes great terror to the enemy, so that they
suffer heavy loss and confusion."

That's boss. If you're the Duke, you're getting pretty excited about taking
the meeting.

------
clueless123
mmmm.., I can see a new format for my resume...

Most illustrious lord, seen and considering the experiments of all those who
pose as masters in the art of inventing instruments of technology..

1\. I can construct delivery systems that are as beautiful as functional, with
which to pursue your business while being assured they'll equally resist the
largest loads or the relentless attacks from malicious characters from
cyberspace.

2\. I can show you how to improve the craft..

And if any of the aforesaid things should seem to anyone impossible or
impracticable, I offer myself as ready to make trial of them in your park or
in whatever place shall please your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with
all possible humility.

------
betawolf33
People interested in this might also like his self-promoting letter to the
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a little later in life:
[http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/22/leonardos...](http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/22/leonardos-
bridge-part-2-the-bridge-for-the-sultan/)

Best link I could find at short notice, unfortunately, the letter excerpt is
two paragraphs in.

------
davidcollantes
Would love to see a citation to such letter. Does anyone knows where to find a
scan of the original?

I have seen that letter many times around the Net, but never a link to
anything that could prove the veracity of it.

~~~
Ecio78
I think this one: [http://www.theladders.com/career-newsletters/leonardo-da-
vin...](http://www.theladders.com/career-newsletters/leonardo-da-vinci-resume)
(click on the image it's high resolution)

one of the sites citing the original text and the modern Italian "translation"
[http://www.scudit.net/mdcurriculum_leo.htm](http://www.scudit.net/mdcurriculum_leo.htm)

------
kapilvt
reminds me of nikolai tesla attempts to sell tech to rich investors or the
military.. such is most of human history. quite a lot of the best and
brightest in search of funding to pursue their research turn to the military
industrial complex rulers aka generals and plutocrats. while the emergence of
the internet has opened up a third avenue, how many phds languish on wall
street or the nsa.

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markyc
be happy you live in a time where the gatekeepers are crumbling all over, so
you can just focus on your craft, whoever and wherever you are, without having
to suck up to others

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tdees40
da Vinci isn't a surname and shouldn't be used as one. It'd be like calling
the Duke of Edinburgh "Of Edinburgh".

See Wikipedia for more information.

------
shn
He definitely lack the kind of ego of engineers of our times.

~~~
bitwize
Indeed. Incredibly humble of one of history's greatest painters to simply
state he can paint as well as any man.

~~~
foobarbazqux
> I can further execute sculpture in marble, bronze or clay, also in painting
> I can do as much as anyone else, whoever he may be.

He's saying he can paint as well as even the best painters. (Which was true.)

"No matter who you put in the wrestling wring, he's at best an even match for
me."

------
simonebrunozzi
Pretty cool to see that after 16 years in office, an "hostile takeover" (e.g.
invasion) took out his employer - Lots of parallels with today's world. :)

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Simple1234
I'm surprised the French were successful despite the technology and
engineering Da Vinci brought to the table.

~~~
betawolf33
It was largely his employer's fault.

Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo's employer, was actually a regent ruling in the
stead of the rightful Duke of Milan. When the young Duke came of age, Ludovico
refused to hand over power, so the rightful Duke got the King of Naples to
support him.

In an unfavourable position, Ludovico panicked and appealed for help from
outside Italy, inviting the French in with promises of support for their
King's claim on Naples. In the ensuing chaos (which included him turning
against the large French army), his challenger (the real Duke) was poisoned
and the King of Naples (the real duke's sponsor) died. It looked good briefly,
until the French king died. His successor, Louis XII, turned out to be related
to the recently-assassinated young Duke (which importantly meant he had a
hereditary claim to Ludovico's position).

Ludovico had by now irritated almost everyone. He had set a precedent for
French inclusion in Italian warfare, irritated most of his neighbours
(including the Pope) and betrayed the French army he had promised to support.

When the French -- already a dominant military power -- came for Milan, they
had the backing of both Venice and the Pope. Ludovico just fled, Milan barely
attempted to defend itself.

Leonardo stayed in French-occupied Milan for a while, before fleeing to Venice
to take on some work there. Ludovico would be captured later, during an
attempt to re-take Milan from the French with mercenaries.

Edit: The point involving Leonardo is that even if he had been capable of
coming up with something crazy that made Ludovico more likely to win a few
battles, the political situation was just too poor for victory to seem
plausible. Ludovico sensibly fled rather than struggle against poor odds,
Leonardo was never called on to help him fight the French.

~~~
Simple1234
Wow, what a great response. Thank you for sharing that...

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rollo_tommasi
A little disheartening to realize that Leonardo is basically applying for a
post in the Sforzan NSA.

~~~
cobrausn
Not really... I know the NSA is topical and all, but they do not handle
weapons development, civil defense engineering, and ship construction.

If anything he was really applying to be a defense contractor.

~~~
vacri
Now I want to see a painting by Northrop Grumman. It's even a good name for a
painter.

------
Sindrome
I feel like this pops up here once every quarter.

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_kst_
"Stay thirsty, my friends."

~~~
arbitrage
I think it's somewhat beautiful that the only response you thought
appropriate, concerning one of the most brilliant minds ever produced by
humanity, was to quote a television commercial.

Regardless, I'm sure Leonardo would be proud of the comparison.

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ivanbrussik
hope this makes it to the front page, so sick

