Leonardo da Vinci was a great Renaissance man: a gifted scientist, mathematician, machine maker, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Whether you want to cultivate curiosity, creativity or scientific thinking, it's a good idea to have Leonardo da Vinci as a role model. To learn how to start thinking like a master of various minds, see Step 1 for more information.
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Method 1 of 3: Cultivate Curiosity
Step 1. Questions generate knowledge and authority
True innovation requires that you, like Leonardo da Vinci, examine generally accepted answers to complex questions and actively form your own opinions and observations of the world you live in. Leonardo trusted his senses and intuition above any other knowledge, both contemporary and historical, relying on himself and his experiences in the world to shape his views.
- For Leonardo, curiosity meant looking back and forth, seeking beyond the generally accepted wisdom of the Christian Bible to interact with ancient minds, study the Greek and Roman texts and philosophical thought, the scientific method and the arts.
- exercise: Examine the point of view of a particular issue, concept or topic that you care deeply about, from a point of view that contradicts your own. Even if you feel confident you understand the factors that make a great painting, or how to form a string quartet, or you know everything about the polar ice cap, make it a priority to seek different opinions and alternative ideas. Make objections to points of view that are opposite to yours. Be your own opponent.
Step 2. Dare to take the risk of making mistakes
The creative thinker will not hide in a safe pool of opinions, but will relentlessly seek the truth, even at the risk of finding himself utterly wrong. Let your curiosity and enthusiasm for various topics fill your mind, not the fear of being wrong. Think of mistakes as opportunities. Think and act at the risk of making mistakes. Success risks failure.
- Leonardo da Vinci enthusiastically studied physiology, the false science of associating facial features with a person's character. Now a broken science, it was a popular concept in Leonardo's time, and may have contributed significantly to his innovative interest in our understanding of detailed anatomy. Even though we may think something is “wrong”, it is better to think of it as a stepping stone to a greater truth.
- exercise: Look for ideas that are old, controversial or have been debunked and learn all you can about them. Think about what it would be like to see the world in this alternative way. Find out about the Brethren of the Free Spirit, Hell's Angels, or the Harmony Society, and learn about their worldviews and the historical context of their organizations. Are they “wrong”?
Step 3. Pursue knowledge without fear
Inquisitive thinkers always accept the unknown, mysterious and scary. To learn about anatomy, Leonardo spent hours studying the human skeleton in less sterile conditions than modern mortuary laboratories. His thirst for knowledge far exceeded his nausea and led him to research the human body and anatomical drawings.
exercise: research the topic that scares you. Are you filled with horror at the end of the day? Research eschatology and doomsday. Afraid of vampires? Find out about Vlad the Impaler. Nuclear war gives you nightmares? Learn about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
Step 4. Find out how things are related
Thinking with curiosity means looking for patterns of ideas and images, looking for similarities that connect concepts rather than differences. Leonardo da Vinci could never have created the mechanical horse that became his bicycle without connecting the seemingly unrelated concepts of horse riding and simple gears. Try to find common ground in your interpersonal interactions, and look for things you can understand from a thought or problem, things you can take away from it, rather than seeing it as something wrong.
exercise: Close your eyes and draw random scribbles or lines on a piece of paper, then open your eyes and finish the drawing you started. Look at these meaningless pictures and come up with one that makes sense. Make a list of words from your head and put them in a similar rhyme or story, finding the narrative of a mess.
Step 5. Draw your own conclusions
Inquisitive thinkers are never satisfied with wisdom and accepted answers, and instead choose to test accepted answers with perceptions and observations in the real world, or form new opinions based on experiences in the world.
- Of course, this doesn't mean you can't test Australia's existence because you've never seen it yourself, but that you choose to withdraw from your opinion on it until you've learned all you can, and experienced the knowledge for yourself.
- exercise: Think of a time when your opinion was challenged by someone or something. It can be as simple as changing your opinion about a movie you like, because all your friends feel the opposite way and you choose to be accepted. Watch the film again with a new perspective.
Method 2 of 3: Think Scientifically
Step 1. Ask challenging questions
Sometimes the simplest questions are the most complex. How does a bird fly? Why is the sky blue? It was the kind of question that led Leonardo da Vinci to his scientific research and genius. It was not enough for da Vinci to hear the answer, "Because God made it that way," but the answer was far more complex and far from abstract. Learn to form challenging questions about things that interest you and test them for results.
exercise: Write down at least five questions on a topic you are interested in and want to know more about. Instead of looking up Wikipedia on the topic and forgetting about it, pick a question from the list and think about it for a week. How do the mushrooms grow? What is coral? What is soul? Do some research in the library. Write about it. Draw it. Think about it.
Step 2. Test your hypothesis with your own observations
As you begin to form your own opinion on a particular topic or question and as you begin to feel closer to a satisfactory answer, determine what criteria will be sufficient to accept or reject the answer. What will prove that you are right? What will prove you wrong? How do you test your own idea?
exercise: create a testable theory for your question and prepare research, using the scientific method. Gather some substrate and grow your own mushrooms to learn more about different methods, techniques and varieties.
Step 3. Understand your thinking from start to finish
The scientific thinker investigates a thought until all its aspects are tried, examined, confirmed or rejected. Don't leave any investigation untouched. Ordinary thinkers often cling to one of the more satisfying choices or answers, ignoring the more interesting or complicated questions that may be more accurate. If you want to think like Leonardo da Vinci, don't let anything go unnoticed in your search for truth.
exercise: Make a mind map. As a powerful tool that can help you incorporate logic and imagination in your work and life, the end result of the mapping will be like a web structure of various words and ideas that are connected in your mind, making it easier to remember small ideas in your mind. in mind, as well as your failures and successes. Mind mapping can improve memory, absorption and creativity.
Step 4. Create a new concept from a failure base
A scientist accepts a failed experiment the same way he accepts a successful experiment: an option has been removed from the list of possibilities, bringing you one step closer to the truth. Learn from hypotheses that turn out to be wrong. If you really believe that your new way of structuring your workday, writing stories and rebuilding your engine will be perfect, and it's not, then be thankful! You've completed an experiment and learned what won't work for the next experiment.
exercise: Think back to a particular failure. Make a list of all the things you learned from it, what you would have been able to do more effectively as a result of that failure.
Method 3 of 3: Practicing Creativity
Step 1. Keep a detailed journal with illustrations
Much of what we now call priceless art comes only from Leonardo da Vinci's diary sketchbook, which he recorded not because he was looking for a masterpiece, but because the creative attitude associated with his everyday life became his way of processing thoughts. and write it with additional illustrations. Writing forces you to think in a different way, articulating your vague thoughts as specifically and as clearly as possible.
exercise: Make a list of topics that you will write down in detail in your journal during the day. Big topics where you have an opinion like, “television” or “Bob Dylan” would be great. Start telling a topic by writing at the very top of the page, “About Dylan” and write, draw or do whatever you want through your writing. If you come across something you're not sure about, do some research. Learn more.
Step 2. Write descriptively
Develop a rich vocabulary and use accurate words in your descriptions. Use similes, similes and analogies to capture abstract concepts and find connections between your ideas, investigating your thoughts on an ongoing basis. Describe things that can be felt-touch, smell, taste on the tongue, feelings-also in terms of their meaning, symbolism as you experience them and their characteristics.
exercise: Read Charles Simic's poem "Fork". In it, he depicts pedestrians and everyday objects with great accuracy and with an unfamiliar perspective.
Step 3. See clearly
One of Leonardo's mottos was saper vedere (knowing how to look) in building his works in the arts and sciences. When you keep a journal, develop a keen eye for seeing the world and turn it into brilliant precision. Write down the pictures you see throughout the day, flashy things, scribbled pieces, body language, weird clothes, weird snippets of language, whatever catches your eye. Record it. Be an encyclopedia of simple moments and record those moments into words and pictures.
exercise: You don't have to keep a journal like in the 15th century. Use your cell phone camera to take lots of photos on your way to work to make your trip more “live”. Make yourself actively look for 10 interesting pictures on your journey and take photos of them. On your way home, look back at the photos in the morning and think about what caught your eye. Find the relationship between each of the random photos.
Step 4. Spread the net wide
Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance Man like Plato: as eminent as a scientist, artist and inventor, Leonardo would have been confused and frustrated with modern opinions/views of career. It's hard to imagine him going to work with a frown, finishing his work and going home to watch the series "House of Cards." If you are interested in an area outside of your everyday experience, consider it an opportunity rather than a challenge, and the freedom we have to pursue experience and its limitations.
exercise: Write down a list of areas and projects that you want to complete in a few months or years. Always wanted to compose a novel? Playing or learning the banjo? There's no point in sitting around waiting for it to happen. We are never late to learn.
Tips
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Some of the traits of da Vinci that might be worth emulating are:
- Charisma
- Generous
- Love for nature
- Love for animals
- The curiosity of a child
- Read a book. People like da Vinci don't have TVs for entertainment, they read!
