It's just as true now as it was then, perfect is the enemy of good enough.
But would you rather have good enough or Leonardo?
both. please don't make me chose.
Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
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Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#12What 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.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
But would you rather have good enough or Leonardo?
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.
It's not always about getting from point A to point B. There is always something to be said for the beauty of the journey.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
But would you rather have good enough or Leonardo?
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.
Y'all are totally missing the point.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#15On 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 Itali…
I would say it is the place of the passionate creative to be entrepreneurs.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#16* hopeful
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#17I 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.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#18"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.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#19I 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…
Because labeling Leonardo a procrastinator makes all of us procrastinators feel better about ourselves.
Re: Leonardo da Vinci was a hopeless procrastinator.
#20On 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 Itali…
What was the cause of the prosperity that generated these customer dollars? Isn't it arguable that with enough people with excess wealth, patronage of the arts/science is inevitable?
With the wealth of today's first world, anyone who wants to be a passionate creative can be. And many are. Money isn't the problem; gumption is.
I think the article is a bit ridiculous at the end, about how the man is keeping academics down - if it weren't for the university, why academics' genius would flower. Blaming is the opposite of problem solving.