Standing on The Shoulders of Giants

2025-02-23   sketch historyofscience extremelyimportant

The highest leverage thing to do for learning is finding those who are the best in their field and learn from them. These elite people, who became top of a field, commonly share similar mental models that are universal in every field. For everyone, including Newton or Einstein, >99% of their knowledge came from the giants before them, they made such an impact because they could put something new on top of the skyscraper built by previous ones.

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants"

—Newton

Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes (dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants)

Other relevant:

• In any field, top 1% have 99% of the talent and knowledge
  

• make friends with greats
  

• 🔗

  Frank Wilczek's on Lex Fridman, 2:10:18
  

  
  

  1. Learn from the greats
     

     • “Read history of ideas and masters of ideas, which I benefited enormously from. Reading physics from Einstein in the original form, and Feynman’s lectures, and Darwin, Galileo. You can learn what it is to wrestle with difficult ideas and how great minds did that. You can learn a lot from style, how great minds write out their ideas and express in clear ways. Bertrand Russell was also a big hero to me. Read great minds, make contact with them. When you narrow down on a subject learn about the history of the subject because that really puts in context what you’re trying to do and also gives a sense of community and grandeur to the whole enterprise ”
       

  
  

  2. Master the basics
     

     • “Get the basics under control as soon as possible. They should be like your native language, in your bones.” –Frank Wilczek
       

  
  

  3. Cast a wide net
     

     • “Cast a wide net. Look around and see what you are interested in.”