In the Sixteenth Century, Michelangelo was more than a sculptor. Like Leonardo and his beloved Dante Alighieri, he did much more than his art.
Director Andrey Konchalovskiy shows “Michelangelo working alongside the masons in a marble quarry, dangling over an abyss on ropes and designing systems for moving mammoth blocks of stone using nothing but muscle power and rudimentary machines such as pulleys.”
Three creators, centuries apart. Their works inspired entire generations. Their work is the culmination of skills, ingenuity, talent, insights and elbow grease. But it endures because it’s embedded in a vessel—a statue, a fresco, a book—and embodies all the human qualities of intellect and the energy of work.
Computer scientist, essayist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Paul Graham discovered the power of creating lasting impact. He didn’t articulate exactly the mechanism that creates that transfer of value. But he figured out the vessel.
In this dissatisfied state I went in 1988 to visit Rich Draves at CMU, where he was in grad school. One day I went to visit the Carnegie Institute, where I’d spent a lot of time as a kid. While looking at a painting there I realized something that might seem obvious, but was a big surprise to me. There, right on the wall, was something you could make that would last. Paintings didn’t become obsolete. Some of the best ones were hundreds of years old.
Dissatisfaction is a sign common to many creators who went to to build something important. It’s a valid operating mode at many levels. Because it starts you off on a journey of self-discovery and character building. They’re both useful ingredients for making something that lasts.
Become one with the work
Forget about your feelings and become one with the work, said Bruce Lee. He was right. And he found a less jarring and more compassionate way to communicate what it takes. Just do it or simply do
student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.
This short survey of human experience is both companion and addendum to the more voluminous The Story of Civilization to 1789. What is 128 pages compared to 11 volumes? The Durant prove they are plenty to provide a wealth of insights on the way we were.
Some ideas that emerged:
And about the last point, culture is a rich repository of energy. Because it contains the work of everyone since the beginning of time. But the point is that humans evolve. It’s a choice we can make. And it’s not about technology, it’s about awareness.
3.
Reality Is Not What It Seems by theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli
Thesis: how the idea of reality has evolved over time.
This is also a compendium. Which reflects the main theme that to make something special and worthy of attention and study you need many contributions. Rovelli is a fellow journey-person in the breadth of knowledge that fascinates him.
I wasn’t not going to suggest I’m a theoretical physicist. But his roaming, like mine, has purpose. I’m interested in the differences between belief and truth, and I’m also working on saying things better.
“You don’t get to new places by following established tracks.”
“Science is a continual exploration of ways of thinking. Its strength is its visionary capacity to demolish preconceived ideas, to reveal new regions of reality, and to construct new and more effective images of the world. This adventure rests upon the entirety of past knowledge, but at its heart is change.”
“This does not mean that science is just the art of making measurable predictions. Some philosophers of science overly circumscribe science by limiting it to its numerical predictions. They miss the point, because they confuse the instruments with the objectives. Verifiable quantitative predictions are instruments to validate hypotheses.
The objective of scientific research is not just to arrive at predictions: it is to understand how the world functions; to construct and develop an image of the world, a conceptual structure to enable us to think about. Before being technical, science is visionary.”
If clarity gets lost in the transfer from vision to article or product, it means we don’t understand it well enough. But often the part that benefits from change is the way we look at things. Hence the importance of doing the work.
4.
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by psychologist, professor Adam Grant
Thesis: keeping an open mind is a teachable skill.
In a way, all the dismissive teachers and many social media pundits have done me a huge favor. Because they prodded me to ask why. Why is a powerful question. It informed my drive to figure stuff out by going deeper.
“Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong—not for reasons why we must be right—and revising our views based on what we learn.”
I’ve totally missed my calling. I should have been a scientist. But the useful bit I practice is that I observe how much people have in common. And I start from there. My work is to take a scientific approach to communication and conversation.
5.
Thesis: perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs.
This books teaches you how to think. And it provides the motivation to see things as they are, not as you wish they were; to be intellectually honest and curious about what’s actually true.
Galef’s metaphor is useful. We’re often in “soldier mindset,” motivated to defend our ideas against threatening evidence or arguments. And scout mindset is an alternative to that—a scout’s goal isn’t to defend, but to go out and get an accurate map of reality.
When someone challenges you, “What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?” It’s all about how we feel. Transcripts of Galef’s TED Talk are available in 37 languages.
The book is available for pre-order. Which is an important time for broad distribution (and publicity). So if you feel thinking better will help you, consider ordering.
In conclusion
Wayne was perennially late for company check-ins with the executive team. As the head of global sales, he was a key executive at the table. He often finished a call, or attended to something else right before every meeting.
Those steps in the process were important, of course. And so was our check-in. So we used to say, in conclusion
One of the more surprising strategies for longevity is actually to sacrifice some part of the object itself. We see this in nature where a lizard’s tail can break off when attacked, allowing the lizard to escape alive.
Values and ideologies can be the strongest enemies of work that stands the test of time. How do we make something of value and cultural significance that will not at some point be stolen or destroyed?
The longevity of a material is often less about the object itself, but much more about the environment it is in. We have limited ability to control the environment. Though not for lack of trying. But we can work to make more things that last.
