Meaningful quotes

Vision without execution is hallucination

• Action is the single ingredient that brings ideas to life. Action is necessary.

He took pride that his lack of formal schooling led him to be a disciple of experience and experiment

• He didn’t learn the societal dogmas, had free-reign to live in his experiments

First I shall do some experiments before I proceed further, because my intention is to consult experience first and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.

• The way he frames his hypothesis is unbiased and falsifiable.
• How do I formulate my hypotheses? are they biased? are they even questions or are they statements?
• Experience before reasoning. We observe nature and then attempt to describe it so we don’t project preconceived notions

Analogies:

Analogies and spotting patterns for him became a rudimentary method of theorizing

• I so resonate with this. Every time I learn a new cool concept, I try to link it to my worldview. How does entropy relate to curiosity? How does the deterministic nature of QM explain AI and design? How does the fractal geometry of nature impact our philosophy and non-determinism?
• I believe this sense of curiosity and the action to connect the dots form original and unique thoughts that actually provide value. Not only does it help us make sense of the world, it allows us to have something original to talk about.
• I always ran into the doubts of whether or not these analogies are accurate. I would parse them through chatGPT to see if they are 100% accurate. But that isn’t the point. The point is to recognize the common factor between two drastically different variables and seeing how we can connect them together with creativity. This is what I love. I love talking in analogies, thinking in analogies. It is an active exercise of critical and cross cutting thinking.

Studying blood and fluid circulation in the body…he considered what would be the best circulation systems for urban needs, ranging from commerce to waste removal.

• If he didn’t study the human body and circulation for his art, he wouldn’t have drafted up the utopic city. Using something he is familiar with as a tool to think through a novel concept. Analogies are tools for us to increase our understanding of a topic.

Maths

There was harmony in proportions and math was nature’s brushstroke.

• Math is logical — but it is inherently a tool for humans to make sense of nature. It explains nature. Physics aims to explain the mechanics of the world. Chemistry aims to explain the composition. Biology aims to explain us and all living things.
• Mathematics is the closest thing to nature.

L'imagination se lassera plutôt de concevoir que la nature de fournir. Imagination tires before nature. —Blaise Pascal

• More the reason to dive into mathematics, as we are able to find the truth (or closest thing to) which helps us explain our world. Nature always have new things to offer.

The good painter has to paint two principal things, man and the intention of his mind.

• Tells us the importance of understanding the underlying subject we are creating. Understanding their values, who they are, their emotions, their muscle makeup. First principles understanding in action. Everything we create we must understand all its moving parts to its fundamental structure.

Hypothesis testing

Leonardo constantly employed hypothesis testing to his understanding of the world

• Hypothesis → validation → information
• The lack of information that Leo had meant that he wasn’t just a google search away. ANy question he had required him to FIND the answer. This means, he, at the extreme level, was constantly testing his hypothesis with action.
• In our age, hypothesis is tested through action but only with things that we can’t instantaneously get (career choice, interest in something, or a thesis). But almost every question Leonardo had required him to act on his curiosity.
• = ratio of questions to actions is incredibly high

Romanticizing with nature

• Leonardo recgonizes the beauty of nature and romanticizes it.
• He dreams to live on a farm away from the noise
• Yet his curiosity compelles him to live in Florence, a city full of busle and stimulation