The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
Will Durant
Summary
Summary of the great people of history written by a legendary historian
Rating: 4/5
Notes
Humour is akin to philosophy for they are both viewpoints born of a larger perspective of life
The real history of man is in the lasting contributions made by geniuses to the sum of human civilization and culture
If ideas do not determine history, inventions do and inventions are determined by ideas
Which of us is original except in form? What idea can we conceive today that has not enjoyed, in one year or another, the antiquity of time?
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower in the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it and it’s done and the place there shall know it no more
Let me have 7 hours a week and I will make a scholar and philosopher out of you
Beauty is born in suffering and wisdom is the child of grief
Idiots are happier than geniuses and those who we most respect seek not happiness but greatness
There is less brutality now than in any recorded generation in the past
Consider education not as the painful accumulation of facts and dates but intimacy with history’s greatest men
12 most important dates of all time:
- 4241 BC: the invention of the Egyptian calendar
- 543 BC: when buddha died
- 478 BC: death of Confucius
- 399 BC: death of socrates
- 44 BC: death of Caesar
- BC: death of christ
- 632 AD: death of Mohammed
- 1284 AD: death of roger bacon (inventor of gunpowder in the West)
- 1454: the first printed date on printed documents
- 1492: Columbus discovers America
- 1769: James Watt brings the steam engine to use; the dawn of the industrial revolution
- 1789: The French revolution
‘May my son study history for its is the only true psychology and only true history’ - Napoleon
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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