Luminary Traits

Just finished listening to ‘Benjamin Franklin: An American Life’, biography of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of America, by Walter Isaacson. Yes I mean listening. I took a membership in Audible, an online repository of books, and articles of various types. As name suggest these books will be read to you by someone. Initially I was apprehensive. I thought that listening would not be as effective as reading a book. But I was surprised to learn that in terms for content retention, both are equally effective. My reading (listening) habit has sky rocketed ever since. However, it is not exactly same as reading. While reading, I used to note down new words or interesting structures, ideas, jokes etc. Now, I listen to books while I do repetitive tasks, mostly while doing microscopy or driving alone. One key drawback of listening is that, it is not very effective in improving my English compared to reading the text. I used to re-read a sentence, if I find it interesting or if did not understand the ideas. It is an inefficient way of reading in terms of time, but I could grasp more.   In terms of content retention, speed and effective utilization of time, listening score points over reading. For the time being I am going to stick with Audible.

Coming back to Benjamin Franklin, it is the second biography I am listening to in audible. The first one is ‘I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and shot by the taliban’, an Autobiography co-written by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb. But in the past couple of years I have read several of them (pre Audible times). It is a part of self-improvement plan I have ventures upon for a while. We are all deficient in something or the other. I think it is a good idea to examine the life of other great human beings to see how they ended up the way they are. It is an attempt to understand the fundamental aspect of their greatness. The books I have read so far are (i) Einstein: His Life and Universe (ii) Steve Jobs (iii) My experiments with truth (iv) I am Malala and now Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. Wow! that is three books by Walter Isaacson (i,ii and iv). I will be focusing only on Einstein, Jobs, Gandhi and Franklin.

One thing common among these four men is their detachment from people around them. They all had several people following them around. But most of them were influenced by each of these luminaries. They were rarely influenced by anyone. They were all ‘D’ personalities. Direct in their approaches. Lack of concern regarding what others might think about them. They were all famous by 30. All of them pursued what excited them. Among them only Franklin was an all rounder: Businessman, diplomat, leader, scholar and scientist. Others were focused on only one thing, mostly. All were extremely passionate about what they did and in a way mentally attached to their chosen path (as opposed to the relationship with people).

By teenage years they were in the company of people from whom they could learn ideas or philosophies far greater than if they were with their contemporaries. Einstein was initiated to this “higher world” by Max Talmud, a medical student. By the time he was 10 Einstein was reading books on popular science and mathematics given to him by Talmud, The conversations he had with him greatly influenced his thoughts and philosophies. Gandhi met Raychandbhai, almost as a teenager. He considered him as a spiritual and real life mentor. Gopal Krishna Goghale also heavily influenced him later in life (who can be considered as his political mentor, when he switched from an barrister to leader of independent movement). Benjamin Franklin worked as an apprentice with his elder brother as printer. He was a hard working person, at the same time diplomatic. He used to write letters to his brothers newspaper using pseudonyms, to avoid making his brother jealous, but at the same time engage in things he love. Jobs was in the company of Wozniack by the time he was in high school, the collaboration that ended up in the formation of Apple.

They all developed their of convictions and philosophies about life. Philosophical movements, discussions with like-minded friends, reading and traveling, also influenced them. Einstein got into the habit of reading heavy books much earlier in his life. During his youth he also had a group of friends who would get together to discuss about science and philosophies, while he was working as a patent clerk, I guess. Franklin started his junta, with like-minded friends. Gandhi also was involved with peoples of various lines of thoughts while he was studying in England. He had already become an experimenter with philosophy, life and truth during that period. Jobs had travelled to India in search of nirvana.

Gandhi was influenced by “Unto this last” by John Ruskin, “The kingdom of God is within you” by Tolstoy. Bhagavat Gita was also a huge influence on him. Franklin was influence by “Pilgrims Progress” by John Bunyan. Jobs was influenced by several books such as ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, Be Here Now by Ram Dass. They were all vegetarians (Einstein towards the end of his life). Both Gandhi and Jobs experimented a lot with diet. Especially fasting and vegan diet to extreme level.

Freedom of thoughts and action are the main theme in these lives. Do what you love. They all got freedom of thought and expression as children. They were given proper education. They were fortunate to get exposed to right friendships/mentors who influenced their thoughts in a positive way. It also fair to assume that, they were groomed so that they were wise enough to avoid bad company.  They all grew mostly emotionally detached.

By comparing these 4 luminaries, I am not trying to equate their contributions or the originality of their work or the impact of their contributions on the society. I do not believe Einstein and Jobs were equals in their intellectual prowess or Gandhi and Franklin had comparable moral values. But they all were extremely successful and influential in their own line of work. They paved way to a revolution in unique ways.  The bottom line is that people are mostly molded by (i) the environment they are raised (ii) the intellectual challenges and feedback they get from people around them (iii) exposure to ideas and freedom to explore them (iv) take responsibility for their own life. Some individuals are natural in certain aspects, Einstein in mathematics to give and example. But that talent is at the risk of lost if they are not exposed to the right environment. Providing such supporting and meaningful environment, with enough room of freedom and lateral growth, is the job of parents and guardians of children.