The output of historic geniuses is just insane. The sheer amount of work and discovery and creation they did seems too much for one lifetime. I just don’t understand how they managed all they did.
In: Other
The scientists were bored noblemen. Rich, so they had nothing but time.
The artists… Art was literally their job. You might as well ask an accountant where they get all of the time to calculate numbers.
[removed]
As others have said, they were either rich people who could do whatever they wanted with their time (Newton, Dante, Darwin) or it was literally their job (Leonardo, Shakespeare).
Very few non-rich people created amazing art as a sidegig, or an activity not meant to generate revenue (Pessoa comes to mind)
They didn’t have the internet to entertain them, so they passed the time by working instead.
Maids, nannies, cooks, and wives did all the household chores for them. Most of them were either wealthy men of leisure or sponsored by a patron. No TV, no phones, books were hard to come by… They could dedicate 24/7 to their work.
Imagine you had a year out in the countryside with no electricity. Plus a full staff to see to your every need. Three times a day delicious food would be brought to you, and you would even have a valet to dress you in the morning. How much time could you spend on your passions?
My understanding was Newton was in isolation because of the plague during his most productive years.
You find a sponsor that would fund you. That’s how it practically works up until now, but the process is much more bureaucratized and taken up by corporate entities rather than by individual aristocrats.
Imagine being so privileged you could spend every waking hour devoted to your latest autistic/attention deficit fixation because you do not work
It’s not just a matter of finding the time, but also of finding the motivation to commit so hard to their work.
There’s a fair bit of argument emerging that many, if not most, of the world’s greatest ever minds may well have had high-functioning autism. Those most regularly cited as possibly in that camp include Isaac Newton, Michelangelo, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Mozart, Marie Curie, James Joyce, Leonardo da Vinci and Beethoven.
High-functioning autism can provide the ability to focus with single-minded intensity over a protracted period, without social distraction, and that might almost be a precondition to producing a magnum opus, or a lifetime’s body of outstanding work.
It is often said of autistic people that they would ‘rather be right than loved’. While that can sometimes piss people off, cause social isolation and the loss of friends, it might still be the most effective path to getting the big things done.
No thought of sleep ever dwells
Upon the wise man’s mind
Some task or audience
Stealing every moment of his time
Thus we have learned to live
While mortal men
Stand waiting to die
How can we do what must be done
In just one short life
Latest Answers