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• Author:: [[Walter Isaacson]]
• Reading Status:: [[Books Read]]
• Recommended By:: [[Powell's]]
• Tags:: #Books #[[Leonardo Da Vinci]] #Engineering
• Key Takeaways::
  • Power of Mindset
    • Procrastinate. "Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least," he explained, "for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form." Most of us don't need advice to procrastinate; we do it naturally. But procrastinating like Leonardo requires work: it involves gathering all the possible facts and ideas, and only after that allowing the collection to simmer.
    • Get distracted. Leonardo's willingness to pursue whatever shiny subject caught his eye made his mind richer and filled with types more connections. Go down rabbit holes. See things unseen.
    • Observe. Leonardo's greatest skill was his acute ability to observe things. It was the talent that empowered his curiosity, and vice versa. It was not some magical gift but a product of his own effort. #[[Be Observant]]
    • Retain a childlike sense of wonder. At a certain point in life, most of us quit puzzling over everyday phenomena. We might savor the beauty of a blue sky, but we no longer bother to wonder why it is that color. Leonardo did. So did [[Albert Einstein]], who wrote to another friend, "You and I never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born." We should be careful to never outgrow our wonder years, or to let our children do so.
  • [[City Building]]
    • In late 1517 he accompanied the king to Romorantin, where they stayed until January 1518. Drawing on the ideas and fantasies he had developed for an ideal city while living in Milan thirty years earlier, Leonardo began sketching in his notebook his radical and utopian aspirations for inventing a town from scratch.
  • [[Expertise]]
    • Day dream what you do. Practice in your head.
      • Think visually. Too often, when we learn a formula or a rule-even one so simple as the method for multiplying numbers or mixing a paint color-we no longer visualize how it works. As a result, we lose our appreciation for the underlying beauty of nature's laws.
    • First you learn the rules, then you break them
      • All told, The Last Supper is a mix of scientific perspective and theatrical license, of intellect and fantasy, worthy of Leonardo. His study of perspective science had not made him rigid or academic as a painter. Instead, it was complemented by the cleverness and ingenuity he had picked up as a stage impresario. Once he knew the rules, he became a master at fudging and distorting them, as if creating perspectival sfumato.
    • Experiment always
      • “First I shall do some experiments before I proceed further," he announced, "because my intention is to consult experience first and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.
    • Learn from what can be learned from. Not what can't be replicated.
      • Slapping the “genius" label on Leonardo oddly minimizes him by making it seem as if he were touched by lightning. In fact, Leonardo's genius was a human one, wrought by his own will and ambition. His genius was of the type we can understand, even take lessons from. It was based on skills we can aspire to improve in ourselves, such as curiosity and intense observation.
  • [[Self-Criticism]]
    • Respect facts. Leonardo was a forerunner of the age of observational experiments and critical thinking. When he came up with an idea, he devised an experiment to test it. And when his experience showed that a theory was flawed he abandoned his theory and sought a new one (such as his belief that the springs within the earth are replenished the same way as blood vessels in humans.)
    • ^^One mark of a great mind is the willingness to change it. That willingness to surrender preconceptions was key to his creativity.^^
  • [[Learning in Public]]
    • As the Leonardo scholar Charles Hope has pointed out, "He had no real understanding of the way in which the growth of [[Knowledge]] was a cumulative and collaborative process." Although he would occasionally let visitors glimpse his work, he did not seem to realize or care that the importance of research comes from its dissemination.
    • He was mainly motivated by his own [[Curiosity]]. He may have considered, as well, that he was making a contribution to public knowledge, but here it gets murky. He wrote that he intended his findings to be published, but when it came to editing and organizing his notes he was once again dilatory rather than diligent. He was more interested in pursuing knowledge than in publishing it. And even though he was collegial in his life and work, he made little effort to share his findings.
    • This is true for all of his studies, not just his work on anatomy. The trove of treatises that he left unpublished testifies to the unusual nature of what motivated him. He wanted to accumulate knowledge for its own sake, and for his own personal joy, rather than out of a desire to make a public name for himself as a scholar or to be part of the progress of history. #Learning
  • [[Collaboration]]
    • Collaborate. Genius starts with individual brilliance. It requires singular vision. But executing it often entails working with others. [[Innovation]] is a team sport. Creativity is a collaborative endeavor.
    • We should modify the traditional questions asked by art historians: Which version is the "authentic" or "autograph" or "original" one? Which are mere "copies"? Instead, the proper and more interesting questions to ask are: How did the collaboration occur? What was the nature of the team and the teamwork? As with so many examples in history where creativity was turned into products, Leonardo's Florence studio involved individual genius combined with teamwork. Both vision and execution were required. #teamwork #Vision
    • All told, The Last Supper is a mix of scientific perspective and theatrical license, of intellect and fantasy, worthy of Leonardo. His study of perspective science had not made him rigid or academic as a painter. Instead, it was complemented by the cleverness and ingenuity he had picked up as a stage impresario. Once he knew the rules, he became a master at fudging and distorting them, as if creating perspectival sfumato.