What You Can Learn From History's Greatest Innovators | Walter Isaacson | The Knowledge Project 121

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.
00:00 - Intro
01:27 - Why did you choose to study who you did?
02:22 - What’s your method for studying people and telling a story about them?
03:07 - Isaacson explains his editing process
03:41 - Steve Jobs and “imputing”
06:08 - What lessons can we learn from Steve Jobs?
07:58 - Where did Jobs’ intensity come from?
09:27 - How did Jobs’ perfectionism help and hurt him?
11:05 - What “wow” moments did you have while researching Jobs?
12:31 - What did you censor from Steve Jobs’ book?
13:52 - What would Steve think of remote work?
17:16 - Why do pockets of creativity burn out?
21:49 - How did Steve stay grounded to himself?
23:02 - Have we lost intellectual honesty?
26:07 - What happened at CNN and what lessons did you learn?
30:37 - On Leonardo DaVinci:
38:11 - Davinci’s Relationship with Michelangelo
41:08 - How is perfect the enemy of good?
45:40 - What surprised you the most about DaVinci through your study of him?
46:39 - Ada Lovelace
51:25 - What lessons can we observe from innovators?
52:50 - Writing about different subjects
54:51 - On Einstein
56:15 - How important are primary sources?
59:27 - How do you get information from people?
1:00:00 - What is CRSPR?
1:02:30 - What are the ethical implications of CRSPR?
1:12:02 - The great race for CRSPR
1:21:59 - How do you want your work to be remembered?
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Пікірлер: 38

  • @gcarrillomonroy
    @gcarrillomonroy2 жыл бұрын

    Omg, the last part of the episode was the best! The first book I read from Isaacson was the one about Steve Jobs, and believe me, it has been inspiring me since then (personally and professionally)! Isaacson has the ability to make anything "understandable" in a very so elegant way, i.e. simple!!! Shane, thank you! Great interview!

  • @Jbalaji

    @Jbalaji

    Жыл бұрын

    I loved the last part of this podcast. I completely agree with your statement.

  • @Jbalaji
    @Jbalaji Жыл бұрын

    An excellent interview I started reading books of Walter Isaacson just for the past 6 months and read Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin… at present reading Innovators… after listening just ordered Code Breaker….. In the above interview I loved the view of Walter Isaacson… intention to inspire… I wholeheartedly say that he already inspired me and my son… 🙏 With warm regards Balaji- Sydney-Australia

  • @DannyWadeson
    @DannyWadeson2 жыл бұрын

    Incredible guest. Good to hear from CEOs etc but i think the best knowledge projects are with writers, psychologists and people who can talk about more than their own career.

  • @suzakico
    @suzakico6 ай бұрын

    Well done. Once I worked at the Boston Consulting Group as consultant and learned the lessons of how to do the interview and what we may get - such was the beginning. Then, I followed up for the next 40 some years doing the same. I asked and asked with curiosity and inquisitiveness. Most of the time, things flow, people feel at ease that we can communicate in some way or other. I maintain that at the age 75 and practice it endlessly to find what this life is about what we may learn from whomever I meet. My books and my life may be made with such a principle as well. I happened to find on my own re the Mac casing with many signs of people which was shared in this video. Also, about the story of alignment of parts on PC board, I verified that story at TEC's Ohito factory in Japan where Jobs visited. - In short I feell compassion must be at the base of all of these ideas. (I sense there is a spirit of Zen in such act) I have watched only 18 min. of the video so far - Hope I come back later...when I have time.

  • @eric.aaron.castro
    @eric.aaron.castro2 жыл бұрын

    “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” - Albert Einstein

  • @frankwang4143
    @frankwang41432 жыл бұрын

    I love how Walter's books all carry a theme of the truly great innovators and how they are similar in how they think and are curious. Great interview Shane!

  • @hodgmoe
    @hodgmoe4 ай бұрын

    he makes a great point that The creative human spirit can't be reduced to a formula. Steve retained the childhood quality of being lost in the wonder of creation. Like great architecture, it evokes an appreciation on the subconscious level. You can't necessarily describe why you like it, but you do

  • @vnoriega90
    @vnoriega902 жыл бұрын

    This is a massively important episode! Thanks Shane!!

  • @frederickleung8811
    @frederickleung88118 ай бұрын

    Walter, you are absolutely correct to state that "you have to be you", your books are no how to books" and "you have to study a lots of people". Creative people are born?

  • @yesyesyay8452
    @yesyesyay84522 жыл бұрын

    Wow! Blown away and inspired.

  • @Indomitablespirit108
    @Indomitablespirit1087 ай бұрын

    Hey Walt talk about all the Narcissists in Aspen and how little they've changed the World for the better!

  • @rohan__06
    @rohan__062 жыл бұрын

    Einstein his life and universe and Leonardo Da Vinci are my favourite biographies.

  • @andreasalmen1067
    @andreasalmen10672 жыл бұрын

    I love your podcast and your guests! Thank you for bringing this to the world!

  • @user-zk6by3xr4z
    @user-zk6by3xr4z7 ай бұрын

    You are great biography writer.I curious if you can write ordinary woman with extraordinary professional works in her life.

  • @nickthomas6827
    @nickthomas68278 ай бұрын

    This guy asks good questions.

  • @ghnabikhan4846
    @ghnabikhan48462 жыл бұрын

    Hi Shane ..you're amazing ..keep up with this good stuff

  • @Mr4DMAGNUM
    @Mr4DMAGNUM2 жыл бұрын

    Shane - you need to build 2 video courses - one based on "mental models" book as a whiteboard motion graphic and second on "Influence" 2,0 by Robert Cialdini preferably the way you understand them...

  • @davidwilkie9551
    @davidwilkie95518 ай бұрын

    As one who was familiar with measuring grains and liquids in square and cylindrical volumetric devices, "Squaring the Circle" must have been as obvious in the world as breathing, you can imagine how easily grains and liquids are poured from one standardised container to another. So advancing the idea of an interchangeable statistical area of incremental measurement to Newtonian Fluxion-Integral Temporal superposition Calculus in the Observable context of e-Pi-i 1-0-infinity Singularity positioning thermodynamical real-time condensation of Bose-Einsteinian 2-ness i-reflection containment, is as "obvious" as the First, Second, Zeroth, Law adaptation of Equivalence Principle to the concept of Logarithmic Time Duration Timing Holographic Principle Imagery projection-drawing Perspective. Sciencing is not even wrong without careful training in Observation via Singularity-point Entanglement positioning "Artistically", ie with respect for Relativity in Actuality.

  • @JoaoVitorBRgomes
    @JoaoVitorBRgomes2 жыл бұрын

    At around 10:00 min It is really nice to know that Steve Jobs essence came from his dad. Today we average Men, fence painters , been excluded by a fraction of radical feminists who think a child doesnt need a good dad that can pass good values to their own children...

  • @DJSTOEK
    @DJSTOEK2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks

  • @kishorebodha6794
    @kishorebodha679411 ай бұрын

    Hello, very interesting and inspiring. Is there a possiblity to communicate to Walter Isaacson?

  • @cumulusterraticus3446
    @cumulusterraticus34467 ай бұрын

    We all are relative relatives ! So ! Stay decent !

  • @JoaoVitorBRgomes
    @JoaoVitorBRgomes2 жыл бұрын

    Innovators is also a good book

  • @hodgmoe
    @hodgmoe4 ай бұрын

    Steve Jobs would observe or create product features that he thought were "really cool". A lot of entrepreneurs try to do that but not many are nearly as successful in evoking that feeling in the customer. like Elon Musk, his was a focused and dedicated vision. You can't create that with a committee

  • @willardchi2571
    @willardchi25712 жыл бұрын

    First off, Steve Jobs stole the idea for a graphical user interface and mouse from Xerox. Second off, many successful products were the ideas of the people who worked for Jobs, ideas many of which Jobs was against and had to be talked into implementing. Picking Jobs as an example of an innovator makes me wonder whether Issacson has done his homework.

  • @johntalak5453

    @johntalak5453

    Жыл бұрын

    Ok Chi, at least you have done the homework init

  • @Applecompuser

    @Applecompuser

    7 ай бұрын

    No-one else including Sony, Microsoft and others could come up with an online music store. Its one thing to have an idea. Its another to put all the deals together, make it easy and also have it a success. I think Jobs was the perfect person to get those deals done.

  • @manishverma8999
    @manishverma89992 жыл бұрын

    There are many geniuses People dont know about JRD Tata, Ramanujan, Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, BR Ambedkar, Linus Trovald... People who Invented Touch Screen, CLanguage, Transisters ICS Chips, wireless .... It Idiotic to Give all credit to Steve Jobs

  • @willardchi2571
    @willardchi25715 ай бұрын

    Jobs was a lucky fool.

  • @bigmanjesus8881

    @bigmanjesus8881

    4 ай бұрын

    and let me guess, you're an unlucky genius smh

  • @cerebralcathedral3247
    @cerebralcathedral3247 Жыл бұрын

    I hope Walter writes Bill Gates bio, as I'd like to see one day that he writes a bio on non white people. Another Anglophilia fest of only white matters, has become as common as the day is long. Some ethnic diversity would be refreshing.

  • @charliecho5392

    @charliecho5392

    Жыл бұрын

    Lol😂

  • @Applecompuser

    @Applecompuser

    7 ай бұрын

    How about your write about one of your heroes. @cerebralcathedral3247?