lately, it seems I like to make lists.
a friend of mine once said, “think of someone you admire, and do what they did”
first, you have to think of someone you admire. and why. for some of us that’s easier than for others, I suppose.
but for what its worth, here’s a short list of mine:
samuel pepys tops the list. for a couple of reasons. first, for his journals. required reading for anyone wondering what possible purpose could be served by journaling or blogging the seemingly insignificant details of one’s life. also because of what he accomplished with respect to other such seeming trivia, for example almost singlehandedly establishing practices that would allow the british navy to ultimately dominate the seas of the world, and in the process essentially inventing the modern field of accounting, thus providing an inspiring example of how a bright, hardworking, middle class working man with a family can truly change the world, just by doing his job.
j.s. bach for his astonishing productivity and nuanced ingenuity. another inspiring example of a working man, who wrote his music for pay in order to support his rather large family, and in his spare time and for his own amusement (and for the education of his son) just spun out a work like “the art of the fugue.” can you believe it? bach was also a devoutly religious man, who signed every work with the letters j.s.b:s.d.g — his initials, and those of his motto: “soli dei gloria” (glory to the one God).
albert einstein, who wrote and published his seminal papers on relativity in his spare time, while working days at the patent office in bern. throughout his life, einstein repeatedly clashed with authority, with educators in his youth, with most mainstream physicists in his early career, later with particular rivals (such as bohr and oppenheimer) and with policymakers whom he later considered had abused his contributions to science. einstein was also a deeply religious man who once said “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”