#121 Walter Isaacson: Curiosity Fuels Creativity

The Knowledge Project

Shane Parrish

Society & Culture, Technology, Business

4.7 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2021

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Jennifer Doudna all have in common? Celebrated journalist and author Walter Isaacson calls upon his years of research to explain how curiosity has always fueled creativity among history’s greatest innovators, and how each of those individuals shaped the world around them. On this episode Issacson dives deep into the curious obsessions of Jobs, da Vinci’s ability to develop a brilliant mind, Ada Lovelace and how she developed the algorithm, and how Doudna’s work with gene editing could shape the future to come. A journalist by trade, Issacson served as the editor of Time and then chairman and CEO of CNN before eventually spending 15 years as president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, the international research institute and think tank. Isaacson has also written bestselling biographies on Jobs, da Vinci, Franklin and Albert Einstein, and in 2021 released his latest biography, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. -- Go Premium: Members receive early access to episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What Leonardo da Vinci had, just like Benjamin Franklin had,
0:03.1	just like Steve Jobs had, was an insatiable curiosity.
0:07.6	And willingness to be curious about those things
0:10.3	that you and I sort of quit noticing after a while.
0:13.8	I looked in Leonardo's notebooks.
0:15.7	I was reading through his notebooks.
0:17.1	And there's a section on why is the sky blue?
0:19.8	And what amazed me when I saw that in Leonardo's notebooks
0:23.0	was boom, it's in Einstein's notebooks.
0:25.4	He writes, why is the sky blue?
0:27.4	And we see it as a kid.
0:28.9	We're all curious as kids until grownups
0:31.1	say quit asking so many dumb questions.
0:33.7	But Leonardo teaches us that to be creative,
0:37.4	all we have to do is nurture that natural curiosity
0:40.4	we all have inside of us.
0:41.9	Welcome to the Knowledge Project.
0:59.3	I'm your host, Shane Parish.
1:01.9	This podcast sharpens your mind by helping
1:03.6	you master the best what other people have already figured out.
1:07.0	If you're listening to this, you're not currently a supporting member.
1:09.5	If you'd like special member-only episodes, access
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