How To Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci

[flow]

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=zs61txc4kwr4kd1q1rjbfxt41952gdmf

"Productive mediocrity requires discipline of an ordinary kind. It is safe and threatens no one. Nothing will be changed by mediocrity; mediocrity is completely predictable. It doesn't make the powerful and self-satisfied feel insecure. It doesn't require freedom, because it doesn't do anything unexpected. Mediocrity is the opposite of what we call "genius." Mediocrity gets perfectly mundane things done on time. But genius is uncontrolled and uncontrollable. You cannot produce a work of genius according to a schedule or an outline."

I can't help but think...INTP

 

[Da Blob]

Good article, I like to see how the language evolves, one work at a time. The fact is nowadays the common understanding of the word is, Procrastination= laziness.

da Vinci seems to have been a classic example of an INTP, but here's the catch, we have no way of knowing if personalities evolved in a similar way back in his day...
I mean if personality is in part a response to the environment - look at how radically the social environment has changed. In da Vinci's day meeting a stranger was a relatively rare occurrence, but today we might encounter a hundred strangers every single day...

Hmmm it is a good thing I never did Meth, I already 'tweak' my work into 'non-existence' If I let It sit - something starts to 'annoy' me about It and I have to 'mark my territory' by making a change. I am never satisfied with my efforts. That's why I do my best work under the stress of a deadline, no chance for second guessing (at least none that will make that difference)

 

[LucasM]

"For the most part, his notebooks — like the commonplace books that were kept by students in the Renaissance (Shakespeare's Hamlet had one, for example) — were a polymath's workshop: a place to try out ideas, to develop them over time, and to retain them until circumstances made them more immediately useful."

That is the essence of productful procrastination, to be having many projects on the go at once.

 

[didyouknow]

Yep. Well written article about one of my personal heroes. I think it was a lot more free back in those days though. Today there's so much to swim through before people take you seriously and you're so tired you don't remember why you crossed the river anyway. That's why I want to be freelance. I'll learn at my own pace in my own way.

 

[Gorgrim]

enjoyed reading this article, and well. Why even have the word 'lazy' it almost annoys me. If you don't do something, it wasn't important enough for you. I can relate to what is supposedly said about Leonardo though.

I think it's safe to say people's physiology back in the day were not very different, atleast when it's only 500 years.
The enviroment though, might have forged other types of the same type of people. as in, the personalities were the same, but the means to evolve yourself were different. that's problably why you see such a guy as Leonardo. My theory beeign that he was abit of an exceptional artist also because of his enviroment, but properly not an altered personality.

I must admit, that i've lost some of my freedom going to school. I'm not passionate/perfectionistic about much there. So many things I'd not naturally do. I havn't any spontanous art for a long time. I havnt really had any of these 'touched by the hand of god' moments. I keep thinking that i could make anything a masterpiece If i actually tried, but it's just not worth the effort for most things.

The fun thing about procrastination would be, that as the deadline moves closer in time, the pro's get stronger compared to the con's... far out in time, there is still no need to get it done untill there's really no chance to do it except the last moment.

I wanna have dual personalities going to school, INTJ at school INTP everywhere else. Sort of.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

I wanna have dual personalities going to school, INTJ at school INTP everywhere else. Sort of.

wouldn't that be fantastic.

*Hannah Montanna*

BEEEEEEEEEEEEST of Both Worlds

 

[Anling]

That was a truly enjoyable article. I especially liked the last paragraph. Ha! My procrastination has a purpose.

 

[chocolate]

From the article it sounds like he was textbook ENTP (and no I'm not just saying that because...). But I can identify with that, I tend to work in very intense spurts and then long periods of low productivity. I'm sure it averages out the same. Many of the grad students I know are like this...I think it's mainly a high P trait...

 

[FacetiousPersona]

It seems that we underestimate how the boundaries of knowledge have constrained our imagination. I shall truly be concerned when theories are accepted as fact without extensive empirical studies of them.

A terrible mistake would be for us to follow a concept as truth when it is wrong. Our efforts would perhaps be devoted to developing an inaccurate theory, which consequently leads to brilliant minds using their potential incorrectly. This is mere chance and it will forever be present. Discoveries will be missed and the potential of certain minds not nurtured. My only hope would be that the incorrect study has benfits, such as elements are advantageous to other fields or future theories; perhaps we would also learn from it.

 

[chocolate]

My only hope would be that the incorrect study has benfits, such as elements are advantageous to other fields or future theories; perhaps we would also learn from it.

Always. Seriously. From experience, I can't even remember all the times I went down the wrong path, invested hours, days, even months on it, only to kick myself later. But then, a few months later, magically...oh, I'm glad I worked on all that stuff, I need that idea now!

 

[FacetiousPersona]

Always. Seriously. From experience, I can't even remember all the times I went down the wrong path, invested hours, days, even months on it, only to kick myself later. But then, a few months later, magically...oh, I'm glad I worked on all that stuff, I need that idea now!

You are lucky that it was months at maximum instead of your whole life. Hehe.

 

[chocolate]

hehe yeah. But even then...I like to think that any time spent thinking or creating isn't wasted. Also only hindsight can say what was a waste of time and what is genius.

 

[FacetiousPersona]

hehe yeah. But even then...I like to think that any time spent thinking or creating isn't wasted. Also only hindsight can say what was a waste of time and what is genius.

Yes, and I am also sure that even Netwon himself spent time with endeavors which failed or were proven useless, but they definitely may have had subtle purposes which are not easily fathomable. I would like to think that mistakes contribute to our future positively. It is impossible for us to choose the correct, most beneficial endeavor each time, but this logic allows the wrong choices to be more acceptable.

 

[Zadigdigs]

I love you.