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Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

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Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#41

Post by davidw »

norea-armozel wrote: post #6
brachi wrote: post #3

> 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.

Yep. I think that is the spirit of HN's "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." in the guidelines.

I love the articles about odd but interesting things, or deep dives in "foreign" worlds.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#42

Post by jacobolus »

justifier wrote: post #28
personlurking wrote: post #26

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 wi…

mirror writing is actually easier to start doing with whatever hand you write with less often; i'd argue due to having less muscle memory to have to subvert mirror writing is only mirrored from a social standpoint all writing is just random lines we ascribe context to leonardo was a visual artist abstracting symbols from strokes is a part of the discipline and like finding your line while participating in a visual me…

> due to having less muscle memory to have to subvert

Actually better than that: you can more directly transfer skill from one hand to the other if you’re making exactly mirrored motions.

This is why I think e.g. keyboard instruments should mirror the order of notes between the left and right hand parts. Then you can get away with learning one uniform set of finger motions, instead of two.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#43

Post by [deleted] »

thebspatrol wrote: post #17
tpeo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#44

Post by GuiA »

hyperpallium wrote: post #31
personlurking wrote: post #26

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 wi…

Mirror writing enables lefties to not smudge the ink (no ballpoint pens back then).

I'm left handed, and was educated in a country where using a fountain pen is required until middle school (at least it was when I was growing up).

Every time there was a smudge on a piece of work, my 2nd grade teacher would tear it apart and make me do it all over again. I usually finished way before the other kids anyways, and even doing that I was still usually done before the others.

I can write really neatly now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#45

Post by 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...

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#46

Post by noufalibrahim »

emdashcomma wrote: post #34
hyperpallium wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mirror writing enables lefties to not smudge the ink (no ballpoint pens back then).

I don't remember much of the Arabic I learned, but I mastered the script because I found writing English-in-Arabic-script so much easier as a lefty that I wrote a lot of my notes that way.

This comes up when I practice calligraphy as well. I'm right handed and if I'm doing an LTR script (like English), I can manage fairly well without a guard sheet but if I'm doing something like Arabic, I need to be way more careful since my hand will be on top the fresh letters I write. That, apart from the lack of good instructional material, is probably why I moved away from Arabic calligraphy although I really love the form of it.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#47

Post by ruricolist »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #46
emdashcomma wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't remember much of the Arabic I learned, but I mastered the script because I found writing English-in-Arabic-script so much easier as a lefty that I wrote a lot of my notes that way.

This comes up when I practice calligraphy as well. I'm right handed and if I'm doing an LTR script (like English), I can manage fairly well without a guard sheet but if I'm doing something like Arabic, I need to be way more careful since my hand will be on top the fresh letters I write. That, apart from the lack of good instructional material, is probably why I moved away from Arabic calligraphy although I really lov…

Medieval Arabic scribes would turn the paper on its side and write from top to bottom to avoid exactly this problem. It's why Arabic numerals are sideways compared to European "Arabic" numerals.

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#48

Post by INTPenis »

themodelplumber wrote: post #45

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...

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

Re: Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do List (circa 1490)

#50

Post by vnglst »

kstenerud wrote: post #14

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…

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. ;)
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