That reads more like a bucket list than a todo list.
that is the difference between a genius and an ordinary person - what is the bucket list for the latter is just a to do list for the former.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
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Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#12> 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.
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.
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.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#13That reads more like a bucket list than a todo list.
Wonder how our lives would be if we did more to work on our bucket lists than our todo lists.
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.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#14What 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.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#15>[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.
OK, let's agree that that defines 'loopholes' in this context but still what is meant by the overall comment? Why ask about building a tower without loopholes?
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#16> Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.
What did he mean by this?
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
I think theres a pretty obvious difference between da Vinci-esque broad-reaching intrigue and just having a certain set of hobbies.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#18> Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle. What did he mean by this?
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) 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.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#19> 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.
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.
I agree. I definitely feel less curious as I've gotten older. One angle is - given how easy it is to access information, curiosity is more often a distraction than a benefit.
Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I completely agree — for me it was always the attraction of of hypertext, of the internet. Every term, concept or media, explorable. Practically infinitely-so. What went wrong? (well, aside from the internet becoming largely one-way and unmodifiable by the masses.. but there's no real solution for 'that' (whatever that is) yet).
> aside from the internet becoming largely one-way and unmodifiable by the masses
If anything, it's as easy as ever to share knowledge. Just because the barrier to entry is now creating value on other people's websites instead of figuring out how to set up and promote your own doesn't mean its not easier.