
Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator. - makimaki
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=zs61txc4kwr4kd1q1rjbfxt41952gdmf
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jonmc12
On a day to day basis Leonardo would allocate his time between customer
projects and his own. He would balance client commitments with his natural
energy for creativity - and according to this article, his natural energy
often won that battle.

It could be argued that it was the vision and taste of the Medici family in
Florence that actually launched the renaissance. Their customer dollars
enabled a new class of Italian artists and scientists to pursue creativity and
innovation. Leonardo took this to a whole new level - if you had the
opportunity to see the recent exhibit in the San Jose Tech Museum, it is clear
the he was standing on the shoulder of other intellectual giants at the time..
all spurred by customers with a taste for art and technology.

However, when the vision of the creator exceeds the vision of customer, what
is the result? A starving artist, a 'self-sabatoger', a practitioner of
'sinful laziness' and 'self-abuse'?

The author points out that academia has no place for the passionate creative.
I would argue that similarly the a customer driven market is also no place for
the passionate creative. So, where do they belong? Are we content as a society
to witness that occasional, rare intersection of the visionary customer with
the passionate creative? As entrepreneurs, is it our place to find a solution?

~~~
biohacker42
The freedom to pursue creative fulfillment is very unusual in human history.

The vast majority of the time it just takes far too much time and energy to
survive.

On very rare occasions, people have enough time to create art. An example I
can think of is the native Americans in the pacific north west, before the
arrival of Europeans.

The unique combination of:

Seasonal salmon runs - very good calorie rich food that's easy to catch.

A mountainous geography - keeps population reasonably small.

Resulted in a societies that could quickly catch and store enough food for the
whole year.

And they ended up with a surplus of time and energy - free time.

Unsurprisingly that led to a staggering amount of art. Sculpture - totem
poles, music, dance, etc.

But again, that's very unusual. The only other example I can think of is
ancient Greece and they had a lot of free time thanks to slavery.

The one entrepreneurial solution to this, that I can think of is robotics.

I already have a dish washer and a roomba, but those only save a few hours a
week. To really free up my time I need something that will do my work for me,
like a robot that can code in C++.

I just hope the robots don't rebel or something like that.

~~~
ahoyhere
From what I've read, a lot of studies of "indigenous peoples" contradicts what
you are saying. Especially regarding the time spent on necessities. I read an
ethnographical book about how tribal peoples in the jungle 'worked' for at
most half the day on their basic needs.

Granted, the jungle is also plentiful (altho hazardous.)

But the masses of people who have to walk hours for water, in Africa and parts
of the Middle East, is also a modern thing. Before modernish times, that would
be totally untenable. Either they would move on, or they would all die, rather
than this in-between state they occupy now.

The majority of cultures since the Great Leap Forward seemed to have created
quite a bit of art, music and myths, but many of them were trasient and
impermanent and so left no trace. And apparently a lot of it was "practical,"
in terms of beautiful clothing, vessels, "magical" items and weapons.

But I don't think I'd call those things uncreative because they were also
useful.

~~~
biohacker42
I should have been more specific. Clearly almost every people has created art.

It's hard to dig almost anywhere in the world and not at some point hit some
magical amulet or wonderfully decorated pottery art, or something like that.

My point was about the rather unusual situation of Leonardo, and even more so,
jonmc12 question on how to allow more people the same freedom Leonardo had.

The _large degree_ of time and effort devoted to art, by a large part of the
population, is unusual.

Clearly every society has art, and often individuals, shamans, singers, etc,
can be full time so to speak. But it's rare that most people can devote most
of their time, to activities other then survival.

------
bentoner
My solution to procrastination:

1\. Identify the activities you procrastinate (for me, writing scientific
papers);

2\. Rearrange your life so you don't have to do them any more. (I just left
academia to do a startup.)

~~~
juliend2
what kind of startup? Is it linked to science?

~~~
bentoner
I don't know yet! I'm still exploring that, while finishing up various
academic projects.

~~~
raphar
You are delaying facing your fate too! Just do it man. If something is told
here over and over, is that theres no perfect business idea. You pick one
direction and correct your course every time your market tells you so. good
luck. :)

------
electromagnetic
I completely disagree that Leonardo was a procrastinator simply because he
didn't do everything he dreamed of. I'm sorry, I've looked through some of the
books of his designs and he has things like strip-miners and hang-gliders and
such. I'm sorry, they were physically incapable of making them in his day.

He understood concepts and designed things that fit them, likely knowing he'd
never be able to build them in his lifetime. The first design for a Space
Elevator came in like 1895, and in 2009 we still don't have the technology to
make one, so why is Leonardo a 'procrastinator' simply because it was
impossible to build some of the things he wanted to.

~~~
anthonyrubin
Because labeling Leonardo a procrastinator makes all of us procrastinators
feel better about ourselves.

~~~
electromagnetic
And not saying it makes me feel like I'm not a procrastinator! I rue the
minute you commented and ruined my few moments of not feeling like a
procrastinator.

~~~
abossy
Furthermore, the fact that Leonardo is a procastinator and so are we indicates
that we are all merely human and somewhat equally capable, regardless of how
human history has elevated the status of one being over another.

------
robg
Real artists _occasionally_ ship?

 _Steve Jobs tried to motivate people by saying "Real artists ship." This is a
fine sentence, but unfortunately not true. Many famous works of art are
unfinished. It's true in fields that have hard deadlines, like architecture
and filmmaking, but even there people tend to be tweaking stuff till it's
yanked out of their hands._

<http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html>

------
sutro
Unfortunately for da Vinci, pg had not yet finished the "noprocrast" feature,
so would-be masterworks gathered dust as da Vinci frittered away his days on
an early version of Hacker News.

------
jhancock
"The unambiguously negative idea of procrastination seems unique to the
Western world"

As an American living in Shanghai for 9 years, I have had to confront this
meme in its various forms on many occasions. My wife (Chinese) will simply
tell me things like "Chinese people are not afforded the luxury of your
behavior". It appears procrastination is something that must be "afforded".

Its not that procrastination is unique to us (modern-Western-middle-class++),
but that it may have cultivated itself into an attribute that has reluctant
value; otherwise da Vinci would have no merit in this context.

~~~
pkaler
Paraphrasing David Allen: Procrastination isn't about not getting things done.
Procrastination is about not getting things done AND feeling bad about it.

I spent a month in India this year. It's a much slower lifestyle there. When
something doesn't get done, they just don't feel bad about it.

(Obviously, huge generalizations in that last paragraph.)

------
tlb
Is he a procrastinator for not actually attempting to build his helicopter
with late-15th century technology? He would have failed, as the rough-hewn
wooden gearboxes of the day were incapable of the power levels needed for
rotary-wing flight. And other reasons. It was probably better to move on and
sketch some new ideas than try to build things centuries ahead of what was
technologically possible.

~~~
theBobMcCormick
You're seriously missing the point. If you read the article, Leonardo also
failed to finish a great number of paintings and sculptures. These were
clearly completable within the technology of the time and within Leonardo's
personal skill.

------
henning
It's just as true now as it was then, perfect is the enemy of good enough.

~~~
gruseom
But would you rather have good enough or Leonardo?

~~~
rokhayakebe
Good enough, because masses will be able to afford it and benefit from it.
Bring in Leo and the cost goes from nearly free to extremely expensive. Think
bicycle against Ferrari, when all you need is a way to make the 3 mile commute
between home and the plant.

~~~
gruseom
_Good enough, because masses will be able to afford it and benefit from it._

This reads like something out of Turgenev. A pair of boots is worth more than
the complete works of Shakespeare! Before art, bread!

By contrast, one might ask: Leonardo's procrastinations have more value than
the output of how many thousands of sensible, disciplined people?

------
markessien
What he should have been is a type of center of ideas where other people who
could execute brilliantly, but did not have as many insights and ideas could
start from to complete his stuff. He'd have become some type of manager at the
end though.

------
acangiano
Leonardo was the ultimate hyperbrain at work (see [http://www.inter-
sections.net/2008/08/28/hyperbrain-owners-m...](http://www.inter-
sections.net/2008/08/28/hyperbrain-owners-manual-1-the-big-picture)).

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anr
Catchy title. Diagnosing "procrastination" seems to be all the rage nowadays,
people will almost always identify with it.

~~~
mblakele
This may not apply to Leonardo da Vinci, but I'm reminded of M.A. Foster's
notion that overcrowding generates bureaucracy. The idea may not be original
to him, but he suggested that people erect social or procedural barriers when
physical ones are no longer available.

Perhaps procrastination is a similar phenomenon. The workplace is ubiquitous
now, if we allow it to be. Do we procrastinate so that our minds have time to
recover from these new demands?

~~~
ahoyhere
Let's not forget that the _invention_ of bureaucracy was hailed as a beautiful
and wonderful thing, in order to prevent rich people from buying positions in
govt and also getting personal favors out of other govt officials.

~~~
eru
Yes. See Max Weber on the topic.

------
jodrellblank
"You know how Einstein's grades were bad as a kid? Well mine are even worse!"
- Calvin (& Hobbes).

------
helveticaman
I'm in good company.

In all seriousness, that sounds like ADD.

------
10ren
* hopeful

------
WilliamLP
Da Vinci was a true Renaissance Man.

------
alecco

      Procrastination is like masturbation, it's all good until you realize you just f***ed yourself.

------
steelhive
Just because he once worked on Duke Nukem Forever, da Vinci has been unfairly
tagged as a procrastinator.

