
Leonardo Da Vinci’s To-Do List - pseudolus
https://mymodernmet.com/leonardo-da-vinci-to-do-list/
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mci
Previous discussion under another URL:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17651825](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17651825)

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johnrbent
I was inspired by Da Vinci in my younger days to become a modern Renaissance
Man. Then I discovered that the depth of knowledge in any given field had
become far too deep to ever hope at becoming expert in more than one. Sure you
can still make art, and study mathematics and astronomy, and so forth, but
it's almost impossible to reach the level of mastery that Da Vinci reached in
his day. No one hires Renaissance Men anymore :(

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cy6erlion
I bet that's what they said in Da Vinci's time.

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cr0sh
Something else that is sometimes forgotten - LDV's notebooks were for his
personal use; none (that I recall) were ever published during his lifetime,
and then they were "lost" (squirreled away by others would be a better term -
ie, "lost" as in "stuffed in an attic in the back corner and forgotten about
until passed - yet again - after the owner died") for a long period before
being rediscovered and finally published much later - more for curiosity sake
than for any knowledge contained in them, as most of it was out of date and/or
rediscovered by then.

I doubt that he would have cared, either; his interest in bettering his
knowledge and more were for his own sake and nobody else's. Many of the things
he noted down and learned, then expanded upon, were actually well-known
concepts and such that just hadn't been "written down", or if they had, they
were generally done in a far inferior fashion.

Ultimately, though, they were for his own study, and maybe for the few others
he (possibly) showed them to (students and/or people he asked questions of
would be my guess) - to convey ideas very clearly, as if the actual device or
object in question were in front of him or another. Most of the prior attempts
at conveying such information could be termed more as "schematic" than as
representative of actual form. Some weren't even that clear.

As others have noted, I wouldn't bother with trying to become an expert in
everything today - that's a near impossibility. Rather, focus on bettering
your knowledge about a wide variety of subjects that interest you. Learn how
to apply knowledge from one area to solve problems in another domain. Learn
how to integrate knowledge across domains to also solve problems, or come up
with creative solutions or further ideas in another domain. In short, treat
learning and creativity more like a child; play with it, and enjoy it.

That's a large part of what it means to be a "Renaissance Man"; to me, it
doesn't have anything to do with being an expert in any number of particular
fields, or even one field. Rather, to me it means having a broad knowledge
base, and finding joy in applying that to learn in other areas and solving
problems new to me using that - and, when I can or when asked - passing on
what I have learned.

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kitten_smuggler
I recently finished Isaacson's biography on LDV and, while somewhat slow at
parts, it was thoroughly enjoyable as well as inspirational. I would highly
recommend it if you have any interest in history and/or the man himself. What
stood out most to me was the affirmation of the power of disparate fields
information when applied to creativity/innovation.

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throwayEngineer
Anyone else in history who seems universally liked?

Da Vinci seems popular among everyone.

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laughingman2
Feynman and Einstein comes to mind.

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naasking
People alleged Feynman was sexist, and they even protested, so I'm sure there
are some people who don't like him.

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kvartz
Makes me wonder what he would think of today's average person's note/Todo app
content. My guess we would look like complete mad man to him

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idlewords
For me, just his date of birth clinches it.

