Book: 20240626 to 20241106, "Benjamin Franklin : an American life" by Walter Isaacson

20240626 - Chapter One - Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America

20240627 - Chapter Two - Pilgrim's Progress: Boston, 1706-1723

Is it so tightly related to gene? Why those famous people's ancestors were all so smart and brave?

By asking what seemed to be innocent questions, Franklink would draw people into making concessions that would gradually prove whatever point he was trying to assert. p27

The better approach: assuming that I could be wrong, and asking questions to confirm it.

20240628 - Chapter Three - Journeyman: Philadelphia and London, 1723-1726

"......it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do." p37

True. But how did Franklin find that?

People are more likely to admire your work if you'are able to keep them from feeling jealous of you. p40

Maybe, this is the reason that most celebrities insist that their success mainly came from luck.

A secret to being more revered than resented, he learned, was to display a self-deprecating humor, unpretentious demeanor, and unaggressive style in conversation. p42

How?

Don't trust the words from anyone, even the one with great reputation. We need to verify their past behavior.

Don't waste time, even in the worst situation. We cannot change the environment, but we can adapt to it.

20240714 - Chapter Four - Printer: Philadelphia, 1726-1732

The Junto p55

Feels kind of like the X platform and sparetime school today.

Franklin taught his friends to push their ideas through suggestions and questions, and to use (or at least feign) naive curiosity to avoid contradicting people in a manner that could give offense. "All expressions of positiveness in opinion or of direct contradiction," the recalled, "were prohibited under small pecuniary penalties." p56

This is good, but require much more skills and efforts, and it needs patience from both sides.

Deism is followed by so many famous celebrities. I doubt it.

Lives are the result of physics. The result of Game Theory.

The moral perfection project p89

Can we become saint through practice? Maybe. This is self hypothesis, a way to change/build our subconsciousness.

Poor Richard's Almanack p94

There are similar books in other countries. Short, easy to understand, useful, and sometimes contradictory.

They are rarely useful, as they cannot be used to guide our life. They are only obvious afterwards.

20240730 - Chapter Five - Public Citizen: Philadelphia, 1731-1748

(Franklin) found that people were reluctant to support a "proposer of any useful project that might be supposed to raise one's reputation." So he put himself "as much as I could out of sight" and gave credit for the idea to his friends. p103

Don't expect instant feedback!

Franklin retired at age 42, with annual income around $1.5M at the level of today.

It's a lot to normal people, but far below billionaire level.

His courage is admiring. It seems that he was not afraid of anything.

20240803 - Chapter Six - Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744-1751

Franklink proved that normal people can contribute to science, without knowing the details, especially Math.

But low hanging fruits may have been taken away long time ago.

He also proved that curiosity, execution and the right perception is more important than knowledge. His achivement is based on many years of observation and reading.

Is politics more important than science? Yes.

With broad and solid foundation(fair institutions), the breakthroughs of science are just matter of time.

20240817 - Chapter Seven - Politician: Philadelphia, 1749-1756

Modern people got it completely wrong about FIRE(Financial Independence / Retiring Early): it gives us opportunity to pursue what we love, not to relax and enjoy.

In those years, the colonists' situation is hard. They were facing the challenge from American Indian, French and British Proprietors, and those colonies were not united. However, they knew that if they could not handle the situation correctly, they were doomed.

20240818 - Chapter Eight - Troubled Waters: London, 1757-1762

Democracy at early stage is not mature. British parliament only care about themselves, and prefer to sacrifice the interest and rights of those North American migrants.

Why William Franklin was chosen as the governor of New Jersey? Did the British upper class believe that would entice Benjamin Franklin to join their side?

20240827 - Chapter Nine - Home Leave: Philadelphia, 1763-1764

Comparing Philadelphia to the major cities in Europe, no wonder that Franklin prefer to stay in Europe.

The population of Philadelphia is less than 50,000.

How do we know which side is better if we were in his shoes? It's important to have the rights to move and change.

20240828 - Chapter Ten - Agent Provocateur: London, 1765-1770

There is something called right or wrong. It's about fairness.

Parliament cared more about their voters, so it preferd to exploit the American.

Franklin could get more money and fume if he stood with Parliament if he didn't care much about fairness, but he rejected.

We may also get similar challenge from fate. It's important to insist the right one, if the sacrifice is not too heavy.

20240907 - Chapter Eleven - Rebel: London, 1771-1775

(In 1771, Benjamin Franklin,)He visited an iron and tin factory in Rotherham, the metal casting shops of Birmingham, and a silk mill in Derby where 63,700 reels were turning constantly "and the twist process is tended by children of about 5 to 7 years old." p253

Maybe this is the reason that birth rate was so high before: children can start to work at age 5!

Franklin was always better at practical applications than theoretical analysis. Rather than speculate about the size of molecule, he looked for uses for his oil-and-water experiments. Might it be possible to save ships from dangerous waves by dumping oil into the ocean?....."The experiment," Franklin reported, "had not the success we wished." The surface ripples were smoothed, but not the force of the underlying surges (another metaphor, perhaps). p263

One possible practical application is to prevent water splashing in the toilet. :-)

I think the sentence "The surface ripples were smoothed, but not the force of the underlying surges" is a great metaphor, but what is it?

250 years ago, England is a democracy country, but not one to Ireland, Scotland or North America. I think it's Industry revolution changed everything: people don't need that much low cost labor anymore, which make farming not that profitable. This is the crucial factor which makes slavery abolishment possible.

20240908 - Chapter Twelve - Independence: Philadelphia, 1775-1776

From "John Thompson, hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money", to "John Thompson," with figure of a hat subjoined. p313

This is how we can extract useful information from data. Will AGI adopt similar strategy to minimize the model?

Andrej Karpathy said that 99% of training data is not needed. He is surely right.

The Declaration of Independence has solid philosophical foundation, and breakthrough of conception. Together with elegant English style, no wonder it affected so many people.

I think, B.F. was not optimistic about the US Independence War, although worth trying.

His personality was not changed, which is one of the reasons taking the risk to visit France.

20240925 - Chapter Thirteen - Courtier: Paris, 1776-1778

B Franklin was dying before going to Paris. Does that mean the 30 days trip, which kept Franklin in hungry, revived his body?

This is consistent with what "Outlive" says.

Franklin was a strategy master. He was old and move slowly, but he knew what to do.

20240926 - Chapter Fourteen - Bon Vivant: Paris, 1778-1785

This biograph only tells us a tiny bit of Franklin's major events and words. We get to know a bit what Franklin did, but don't know why he did those things. We can only see the tip of an iceberg.

"The Ephemera"("The Flies", p361) is touching and philosophical. "The Elysian Fields"(p366) is funny and is bold attack at traditional opinion.

There is no way to make Franklin's children as great as himself. Even he spent his whole time with them. It's better to accept that fate. Regression is inevitable.

20241017 - Chapter Fifteen - Peacemaker: Paris, 1778-1785

Franklin is both idealist and realist. We are human, thinking both objectively and subjectively.

His attitude was amazing. Although bearing the pain from gout and kidney stone, he was still as curious as before, and was still optimistic as before in daily activities. But he fully realized that his life was coming to end, but that sadness didn't stop him from taking positive attitude.

20241103 - Chapter Sixteen - Sage: Philadelphia, 1785-1790

Franklin also did physical exercise regularly, and drank water instead of wine.

This proved that he was wise, again.

His curiosity is shocking: although he was over 80, he still got a lot of fun from science experiments and manufacturing.

Compromise is not as important as solving major concerns. Large(population) states care more about money,small states care more about political power. The set up of Parliament and House solved these concerns.

20241105 - Chapter Seventeen - Epilogue

Franklin's offspring is nobody compare to his achievements, although he encouraged many others to thrive.

What's the role of luck to Franklin? He clearly recoginzed the absurdity of slavery at age 16.

He has some very special high level of intelligence.

20241106 - Chapter Eighteen - Conclusions

300 hundred years ago, the people in North America were extremely poor. They need to do whatever possible to get rich. Blaming Franklin for pragmatism is rediculous.

We should not judge him as per current standards. All his major judgements and decisions were correct, although often against social culture.

He followed the first principle well, and he understood what was the top prioprity. He was wise and great.