Los personajes más productivos de la historia

by Michael Rank, Aurora Ramírez Gago (Translator)

Nunca se supo cómo lo hizo. Pocos compositores escriben más de una o dos sinfonías durante su vida. Beethoven dedicó un año para componer sus sinfonías más cortas sin embargo necesitó más de seis años para su novena sinfonía. Pero Georg Philipp Telemann compuso al menos 200 oberturas en un periodo de dos años. A lo largo de su vida,  Telemann completó más de 3000 piezas, aunque sólo 800 han sobrevivido hasta nuestros días.


No fue el único cuya productividad desafió todo límite de la razón. El científico griego Arquímedes descubrió fenómenos matemáticos que no fueron confirmados hasta 17 siglos después. Isaac Newton creó la física clásica, y fue uno de los inventores del cálculo. Benjamin Franklin escribió, publicó, polemizó, inventó, experimentó y bromeó. Y en ocasiones lo hacía todo a la vez. Theodore Roosevelt fue el primer estadounidense que ganó un cinturón de judo, que cazó, que escribió varios libros y que leía cuatro horas al día, incluso en los momentos más difíciles de su vida política.


Este libro explora las vidas de los 18 personajes más productivos de la historia. Analizaremos las culturas en las que nacieron y los métodos que utilizaron para conseguir unos resultados tan arrolladores. Puede que incluso hasta tengamos tiempo de concentrarnos en los quehaceres de nuestras vidas que son realmente significativos.

Genres: Biography, History, Productivity, Nonfiction, Self Help

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2015

About the author

Michael Rank is a doctoral candidate in Middle East history. He has studied Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Armenian, but can still pull out a rural Midwestern accent if need be. He also worked as a journalist in Istanbul for nearly a decade and reported on religion and human rights.

He is the author of the #1 Amazon best seller “From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa: A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History,” and “History's Worst Dictators: A Short Guide to the Most Brutal Leaders, From Emperor Nero to Ivan the Terrible.”

Reviews

[Sambasivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

At least five people that I was not expecting to make it to this list. It is sad that we do not have more than one living example from this list (Elon Musk). Theodore Roosevelt is the most amazing person and i always admired his reading habits - five books per week throughout his life. Thomas Alva Edison's sleeping habits are legendary. All these people had some things in common : highly motivated, looked at the big picture, great leaders, focused on whatever they did and finally rose early, packed their day without wasting any moment and slept very less. Entertaining and instructive read.

[Víctor Cid · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro trata de comprimir las vidas de 18 grandes genios de la historia, hablando de sus grandes éxitos, de sus excentricidades, etc. Algunos autodidactas, otros con una estricta organización, lo que parece común a todos ellos es su enorme dedicación a la lectura para cultivar su intelecto.

[Vicki Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Composed of a series of poignant and sometimes humorous stories, very quality writing by this author. A great way to prevent yourself from making these mistakes is to become aware of them and to be able to recognize when you are doing them. For each of these mistakes, I will briefly touch upon WHY they are counterproductive despite how they may seem. I have to admit it: I like bright, alot can be learn from these individuals. DISCLOSURE: I received this product for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Mohamed Shehab · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is very well defined. However, the choices of the author was based most probably on the most prolific people in the history, not the most influential people and even regardless the quality of their production. So i suppose that there should be some names in this book who the author didn't take in consideration.

[Hester Maree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book of interesting facts reads a bit like an encyclopedia I think, in fairness, it would have been challenging to write it in any other way than devoting a chapter to each person. The choice of 18 inventors, artists and entrepreneurs through the ages is daunting and would probably vary greatly depending on one’s own idea of which productive people most influenced our world.
The author includes Archimedes, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Elon Musk (fascinating stuff), Leonardo da Vinci, Georg Phillip Telemann, Richard Francis Burton, Isaac Asimov, Julius Caesar, Justinian the Great, Philip II of Spain, Napoleon Bonaparte, Theodore Roosevelt, Ibn Sina, Thomas Aquinas, Charles Spurgeon. Oh, and one woman, Saint Catherine of Siena.
I was floored on this point, honestly, which cost the book dearly on stars. What about Marie Curie, Ann Tsukamoto, Grace Hopper, to name just a very few. Perhaps even Rosalind Franklin, the British biophysicist who captured the first photographic image of the DNA double helix, giving rise to modern molecular biology (she, unfortunately, died before she could receive it, but speculation is rife that colleagues Watson and Crick walked off with her Nobel prize, although they retrospectively acknowledged their debt to her)? Not only were these women productive in the extreme; they contributed to humankind in spectacular ways. My rating is thus 2.5 stars.

[Miguel Sanchez Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro intenta hacer una reseña biográfica de los personajes y durante el trayecto mencionar cuales son los hábitos de productividad de cada uno de los personajes, mencionando cuales son sus éxitos, en que momento de su vida los obtuvieron, los hábitos y que repercusiones tuvieron en la vida del personaje.
Retoma personajes importantes como Da Vinci o Musk, sin embargo no es muy claro con el proceso productivo de muchos personajes y tiende a redundar en muchos de ellos, sin embargo, te mantiene enganchado ya que toma los puntos más importantes de la vida de los personajes por lo que como libro de biografía está bien.

[Riley Busch · Rating 5 out of 5]

i re-read parts of this book when I'm feeling mentally uninspired or "lost" in terms of goals and focus. It immediately inspires me to get up and DO SOMETHING, whatever it is. I like that it touches on a combination of people that I knew of and those that I didn't and was written in a way that made them all fascinating, albeit a little crazy. Good way to learn a little about a lot of people without having to read a full length biography on each.

[Constanza Camacho · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book highlights some of history’s great figures, though it does leave many others out. In today’s world, with so many distractions like television and social media, is it even possible to achieve the level of productivity these individuals reached? And by today’s standards, can we even consider them truly productive?

Perhaps there is no definitive manual for productivity; after all, does immense productivity lead to true efficiency?

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una recopilacion de vidas de personajes conocidos (otros no tanto), con vidas productivas documentadas. Una extensa bibliografía. No lo recomiendo mucho, hay otros libros que pueden servir mejor a este propósito.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and worth reading

I chose to read this a chapter or two at a time. There is a lot of information packed in each chapter. Many of these people were driven. I would not choose to live at such a frantic pace or where I did not enjoy my leisure

[Cynthia Feenstra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for book club. 14 of us all thought the same thing. It was poorly written, read like an encyclopedia, and failed to inspire any of us. We couldn't understand the reviews.

[Ken Hamner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting book. Not as informative as I expected.

[Hoàng Hưng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for workaholic want-to-be,

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book, Michael is a great writer and got me hooked on Richard Burton .

[Chad G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, largely interesting glimpse into some famous figures throughout history. Surprised to not see more of the American Titans on this list, like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, or Rockefeller.

[Kian Moini · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a biographical account of these lives rather than a focus on productivity. Nonetheless an interesting book.

[Kamil Kuryś · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't expect this book to change your life or work ethic - most likely it won't. But if you don't do that then it can be a very pleasurable read for a lazy saturday afternoon. Solid 3.5-4 stars.

[Alejandro Osorio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concreto, con opiniones personales de buen aporte

[Florencio Rustrián Monroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante, una vista rápida y concisa en la vida de grandes personajes y su capacidad para producir, con enseñanzas que podemos aplicar y también que debemos evitar. Una lectura sencilla y fácil de llevar a cabo.

[Adam Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book with stories of successful people and their daily agenda and drive throughout years

[Waseem Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading the biographies of various productive people in history. I enjoyed getting to know Archimedes,Thomas Edison,Isaac Asimov,Napoleon Bonaparte and most of all Elon Musk(must read a detailed book on him).I was fascinated by Ibn Sina and now i want to read his most famous work 'The Book Of Healing'. This book was good. However I could not understand the last part of the book as it dealt more with Christian teachings(no offence).

[Timothy Mulroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent look into an eclectic and diverse group of productive people. I'm not sure I would have grouped them in the same way as it made certain sections a little dry but I definitely gleaned some nice insight into efficiency vs effectiveness.

[Jay Ranton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, no rif raff just the facts. Very very challenging