How to Think Like Leonardo Davinci by Michael J. Gelb
How did I find out about this book? It definitely isn't touted by productivity gurus or creatives. It doesn't have some flashy marketing, but it does contain some great information about one of the most successful and interesting creatives ever, while not being a boring biography.
I had just started my job at Pratt and Whitney. We had a beginner training course detailing the fundamentals of the different types of jet engines, a little bit of history, a little bit of design information, bundled together to get new hires familiar with the product line quickly. The instructor of the course was a retired employee, brought back on to help share his experiences through this training.
It was his recommendation that all engineers should learn to think like Davinici. I didn't quite get it at the time. “What could I learn from Leonardo that would possibly be relevant today?” Fast forward 5 years and I listened to this book via Audible. It was one of those books that I'd knew I would need to come back to, in order to get the most benefit out of it.
Fast forward 2 more years and I went back to re-read the book and decided to share some of my highlights and thoughts that are definitely still relevant today.
Live Like Leonardo
The main meat and potatoes here are the seven Davincian principles:
Curiosità—An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
Dimostrazione—A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
Sensazione—The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.
Sfumato (literally “Going up in Smoke”)—A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
Arte/Scienza—The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. “Whole-brain” thinking.
Corporalità—The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
Connessione—A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.
Just reading those, you can begin to see how this could impact careers or creativity today. It is at the intersection of both. These resonate with me across many aspects of my life, especially as I start to become more creative and embrace trying new things both in my career and on social media creating content.
Why be a starving artist?
Even commercialism played a role: “A painter’s reputation rested on his ability to arouse commercial interest in his works of art, not on some intrinsic criteria of intellectual worth.”
There is no sense in making great work and starving because of it. As I set out building skills in video and photography it is just a hobby for me at the moment. At the same time I can see a path to making this at least financially viable to cover costs of the gear, though, maybe not enough to replace my full time income. If I can enjoy it AND make a little bit of money to help offset my spending on the gear I've purchased to make the content that would be great. Could this be optimized to some multi-million dollar online business? Sure, that is feasible and the blueprints exist to do that if that was my desire. Even Davinci realized making great art is nothing if it is not sustainable.
Continue attempting new things. This year I started a few YouTube channels, learned all about lighting, video, audio, editing, scripting and more. That is just one small facet of everything that I attempted this year. I keep learning and keep trying new things. I might fail, I might leave things unfinished and that is ok.
"The life of Leonardo da Vinci is a mysterious tapestry, woven in paradox, dyed in irony. No one has ever attempted so much in so many areas, and yet much of his work was left unfinished."
Don't be afraid to put things out into the world that may not be done. Attempt a lot across a broad spectrum. I'm starting to champion pigeonholing oneself into a niche is not only counter productive over the long term, it is a detriment to your creativity and ingenuity. Don't hide your interests, be your authentic self online. There is are so many interests that I have, I am going to work to diversify my content on YouTube next year to include more of that. I have started to kind of form my niche this year and it is already getting boring. Time to shake things up and make more videos about anything and everything that interests me! I believe doing that will find your correct audience. Researching a single audience and doing the same thing over and over for them certainly works as a business model though.
I'm really annoyed with the YouTube algorithm and its inability to handle more than 1-2 interests at a time. We've all had that happen. You watch one video on a topic, next you are getting recommended more related videos, then suddenly your feed is plastered with things you did not subscribe to and you barely see the videos that did interest you in the past and channels that you had subscribed to.
It is insane for the times that his inventions were hundreds of years away, but a ton of which did in fact come true. Leonardo's invention list was just as long and impressive as the works of art that many know him for.
Leonardo the inventor made plans for a flying machine, a helicopter, a parachute, and many other marvels including the extendable ladder (still in use by fire departments today), the three-speed gear shift, a machine for cutting threads in screws, the bicycle, an adjustable monkey wrench, a snorkel, hydraulic jacks, the world’s first revolving stage, locks for a canal system, a horizontal waterwheel, folding furniture, an olive press, a number of automated musical instruments, a water-powered alarm clock, a therapeutic armchair, and a crane for clearing ditches.
As a military engineer Da Vinci made plans for weapons that would be deployed four hundred years later, including the armored tank, machine gun, mortar, guided missile, and submarine.
In an age of specialization and fragmentation, Leonardo da Vinci shines forth as a beacon of wholeness, reminding us of what it can mean to be created in the image of our Creator.
So, was Leonardo a scientist who studied art, or an artist who studied science? Clearly, he was both.
Lessons Learned
Or at least that is what we call them at work, so I've kept that vernacular. I also keep a running list of items that I have learned and implemented along the way. I know what I do not know. I know that I have to keep learning and trying new things.
He knew that learning from experience also meant learning from mistakes. He wrote, “Experience never errs; it is only your judgement that errs in promising itself results as are not caused by your experiments.”
There was definitely a lack of right brain teaching in college, at least for my undergraduate degree. My masters degree focused far more on the psychology and the interactions between people. As it turns out, day to day in engineering it is more about how you interact and can build relationships with people that matters far more than your engineering skills or textbook knowledge.
“Our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the non-verbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.”
In the enigmatic legacy of Leonardo da Vinci's principles, I've found this book to be a timeless guide cutting across many disciplines. From Curiosità to Connessione, his principles resonate in my creative and professional pursuits. Gelb's call to "Live Like Leonardo" propels me beyond the confines of specialization, inspiring a dynamic approach to content creation and skill development that inspires me to be better.
