Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a series of short stories and novels written between 1887 and 1927. In the stories, Holmes is a “consulting detective”, whose keen eye and hard logic lead to astounding deductions (or abductions). Since the original stories, he has been portrayed in a number of movies and fiction – he is often considered the “most well known detective” in the world, despite being fictional.
There are a few characteristics of Sherlock Holmes which make him an interesting archetype to model oneself upon, as a means to self-improvement. In the following lists, I consider the (fictional) man, as well as some challenges and milestones I can use in order to measure how well I can emulate him.
- logical and highly intelligent
- a capable strategist & tactician
- a natural philosopher (interested in science)
- an artist and musician
- keen observation/abductive reasoning
- polyglotism
- cryptanalyst
- bare-knuckle boxing
- join MENSA
- complete the Français course on DuoLingo
- complete the cryptography courses from Stanford
- draw a realistic female figure
- play four piano pieces
- play four guitar pieces
- win a table-top war game
- find a sketchbook and practise with magazine pictures while watching TV
- download some cool guitar tablature
- do a MENSA practise exam
- finish the MENSA puzzle book
- book a MENSA examination