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Would Leonardo Da Vinci Get a Job Today?
McBacon writes "After Leonardo Da Vinci's resume was transcribed, Wired asked Gordon Chesterman, Director of the Careers Service at the University of Cambridge, if Da Vinci would get hired today. 'What about commercial awareness? No mention of any budgetary control, meeting financial targets or a good return on capital. Few companies can afford "blue sky" stuff at any cost these days.'"
Look at his track record: Never stays at one job too long. Doesn't have a clear career path, keeps jumping around from painting to architecture to mechanical design, seemingly on a whim. Does not play well with others; intentionally obfuscates his notes so that nobody but him can read them. The list goes on and on... this man is obviously not a team player, and would be a poor fit for our development team. -- HR
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
He was applying for a government job, as an arms manufacturer.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
I think the article looks at da Vinci in the wrong light. He never tried to sell himself as a anything but a brilliant innovator. That gets R&D jobs. He fully understood the reality of espionage and took care in encrypting his plans just as any high-level corporation or governmental organization would require.
He may not have been a team player, but he was also centuries ahead of his time. If DARPA found someone centuries ahead of *our* time, they'd suck it up and bring the guy on.
Somehow I don't think people that creative actual work for other people at a 'day job'
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
He may not have been a team player, but he was also centuries ahead of his time. If DARPA found someone centuries ahead of *our* time, they'd suck it up and bring the guy on.
I bet DARPA has several people who are ahead of their time (or at least highly innovative) but aren't team players. (just agreeing and adding to your comment)
Leonardo didn't care too much about budgets or practicality, but that's not to say he didn't lie to his patrons about them. Leonardo could -easily- get a job today, and would arguably be even more famous back then than he was in his own time. He would be self-employed inventor, selling stuff to governments, computer companies, or even on TV.
Hell, for all we know it, Leonardo DaVinci may have been re-incarnated as Ron Popeil, the inventor of the Pocket Fisherman...
This is my sig.
Ah, but how does one know if a person is "centuries ahead of our time" or just crazy? It's always easy in hindsight.
If he was applying for a job to take orders at a McDonalds. ;)
After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
Look here.
HR departments and hiring managers are using the most asinine criteria to black list people. These days, with so many out of work due to no fault of their own, there are many talented people out there and if you "fit in" or have the "right attitude" you're not getting a job.
DaVinci wouldn't fit in - he was a misfit according to today's hiring and corporate standards. He couldn't be the unimaginative lemming that corporate America wants.
When did it become wrong to want to work to just earn a living? Why all these standards and things that, to me, were chosen in a capricious manner?Just because some big shot in a business magazine has a certain standard that he pulled out of his ass, it becomes the norm?
I once saw this Wall Street Investment banker harass this Chinese businessman. He brought up a touchy subject just to "see what he was made of". How fucking stupid can you get? By pissing a guy off you saw what he was made of? I'm sure a bunch of lemmings are going to see that on "Wall Street Warriors" (Hulu) and think, "Yeah! Great idea! I'm going to try to piss people off and if they don't get mad, then I won't know what they're made of!"
Corporate hiring practices are moronic and capricious. DaVinci was too god for corporate America and especially Government.
Because of our extensive education and schooling system, his creativity would be killed by standards and accredited & accepted knowledge that he'd have to go through an learn & get approved for in order to be heard anywhere - even then - it would be pretty hard for someone THIS creative to get ANY attention at all.
You can show people a gazillion things, not even a professor would understand - unless it was written in a language that the professor understands, which takes a lifetime of study to learn to converse to and with.
A small example. The Cross Diagonal Matrix processor was invented by someone independent from any company or school - yet - it received little or no attention at all, even though it was a revolutionary idea that made parallel computing much faster by adding a cross-layer diagonal communication protocol to it (across wafered processors, in a 3d structure rather than todays 2D architecture) ...but did anyone listen? Nooo...
That's how he'd be to, alone, suffering, but inventing.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Given that the government has already spent fundings on things which look as absurd as Psychics and other simiral subjects, it looks like they are ready to take the risks of hiring crazy people if that is what is needed to find the "centuries ahead of our time" person from time to time.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Simple: just look at their results. Centuries ahead of their time gets you lasers and cloaking devices. Just crazy gets you Timecube
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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