Tinkering Successes
Words Of Bruce Lee
Adapt what is useful.
Reject what is useless.
Add what is specifically your own.
Paula adds examples as she finds them.
Americans, Russians, & Others
“Well, jets, as everyone knows, were developed first by the Germans, and then copied by the Americans, the Russians and others, to use in military aircraft.”
Art of Manliness Podcast #436
The Worth of War
The Worth of War
Benjamin Ginsburg
2014
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Sidney Crosby
Canadian professional hockey player
Captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League
Len Zaichkowsky is the co-author of The Playmaker’s Advantage.
“I remember Sidney Crosby telling me in my long interview with him that he played every conceivable sport he could as a kid, and he didn’t specialize in hockey until he was around 14 or 15, but he said there were so many transferable skills that he learned, and he said even cognitively, like the different patterns of play. You learn something from every sport, and you can transfer. He says you just won’t get that by playing one sport, and exposed to different coaches as well will give you different ideas on how to process information.”
Art of Manliness Podcast #456
Myths About Kids and Sports
Benjamin Franklin
Polymath
Writer
Scientist
Inventor
Statesman
Diplomat
Printer
Publisher
Political philosopher
Tinkering that helped shape the United States.
“We think of Ben Franklin as this amazing writer, but when he was 18 he was actually scolded by his father for being such a terrible writer. He was sort of in a shame spiral, and he decided he was gonna become a great writer, and to do this he literally took copies of The Spectator, which was a magazine at the time, and he went and outlined how they built their arguments. That’s how he learned how to write, it was by imitating this structure of a great successful work.”
Art of Manliness Podcast #432
How to Achieve Creative Success
The Creative Curve
Allen Gannitt
2018
Legacy of Benjamin Franklin
Britannica
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Temple Grandin
Academic
Inventor
Ethologist
Grandin mastered diplomacy by reading about business dealings and international negotiations in The Wall Street Journal.
“I then used them as models.”
Think in pictures: My Life With Autism
2nd Edition 2006, page 160.
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Charley Goldman
Boxing Trainer
Goldman trained Rocky Marciano, the only boxer who never lost a professional fight. Marciano’s record was 49-0.
Marciano had wanted to play baseball as a catcher, but failed. Goldman trained short Marciano…
“to punch coming up out of a catcher’s crouch.”
Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano’s Fight For Perfection in a Crooked World
Mike Stanton
2018, page 101.
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Steve Jobs
Businessman
Investor
Inventor
Steve Jobs audited a calligraphy class at Reed College.
“I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.”
“A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
“Why Steve Jobs’s Passion for Calligraphy Is an Important Example for You”
Douglas Crowe
Entrepreneur Magazine
August 08, 2021
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Bruce Lee
Actor
Director
Filmmaker
Martial Artist
Bruce Lee created “an entirely new style of martial arts.”
“You have to go outside of your enviropnment to achieve something better. Some people will say, “Hey, that’s a Korean kick. We can’t use that kick.’ But I don’t care. It all belongs to mankind.
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless. Add what is specifically your own.”
From The Art of Manliness:
“So, he had been, for years, working out with these American students who were good at other types of combat sports as we said like boxing and judo, and Bruce started to think about ways to create what he considered would be the ultimate martial arts style. The three things he combined were the kicking from kung fu and the footwork and punching from boxing, but then he added a unique element that no one’s ever done before. He added Western fencing.”
Bruce Lee: A Life
Matthew Polly
2018, pages 200 and 203.
“The Lasting Impact of Bruce Lee on Martial Arts and the World”
Bryan Scott
Black Belt
November 18, 2023
Art of Manliness Podcast #428
The Life of a Dragon – The Untold Story of Bruce Lee
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Romans
“Well, going back to ancient times, engineering, the term engineering referred to the construction of military machinery. The ancient Greeks were the masters of engineering. They invented many of the engineering principles that are still with us today. The wrench, the pulley, the hose, the crane, and these were invented to power engines of war. The Romans cheerfully borrowed all of these things, improved on them, and conquered a big chunk of the world.”
Art of Manliness Podcast #436
The Worth of War
The Worth of War
Benjamin Ginsburg
2014
~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Journalist
Author
Allen Gannett described Sorkin is “Someone whoknows how to learn, he’s learned how to learn.”
“What’s so interesting, he told me that when he first wanted to become a journalist, what he did was he would take front-page articles from the New York Times business section, and he literally outlined how are they structured. Do they start with a quote? Did they start with a story? Do they start with a supporting detail? By learning that structure of a great creative work, that’s how you actually learn, what is that familiar baseline that your audience likes, that they enjoy?”
Art of Manliness Podcast #432
How to Achieve Creative Success
The Creative Curve
Allen Gannitt
2018
~~~~~~~~~~
John Wooden
Basketball Hall of Fame Player and Coach
Coached 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years
Wooden paid attention to and drew on the experience, ideas, opinions, and knowledge of other coaches.
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization
John Wooden
2005, page 101.
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For Anyone Who Wants To Create
“One thing you also find, which is interesting, is that these creators are highly iterative, and highly feedback-driven. The most successful creators aren’t going off to the woods and writing their book and then coming back. The most successful creators are actually listening to their audiences early and often.”
Art of Manliness Podcast #432
How to Achieve Creative Success
The Creative Curve
Allen Gannitt
2018
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© Paula M. Kramer, 2025
All rights reserved.
Updated October 30, 2025.
