Leonardo da Vinci was the Renaissance man par excellence: he was an expert scientist, a mathematician, an engineer, an inventor, an anatomist, a painter, a sculptor, a botanist, a musician and a writer. If you want to cultivate curiosity, creativity or a scientific thinking style, you can take that as a model. To learn to think like this great teacher, continue reading the article.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Cultivating Curiosity
Step 1. Challenge the authority and knowledge imposed
The spirit of true innovation requires you to question the widely accepted answers to the most complicated questions and get used to forming your own opinion based on your observations of the world, just like Leonardo. He placed a lot of faith in his sixth sense and his capacity for intuition beyond the "wisdom" of others, whether contemporary or historical. He relied on himself and his experience of the world.
- For Leonardo, scientific curiosity meant looking ahead and also behind him, going beyond the accepted truths of the Bible to interact with the ancients, to study Greek and Roman texts, philosophical and scientific thought models and art.
- Exercise: Look at a particular problem, concept or topic that you know very well from a point of view opposite to yours. Even if you are fully aware that you understand what makes a painting a work of art, how a string quartet is formed, or that you know everything there is to know about the state of the Arctic ice sheet, work hard to find different opinions. and alternative ideas. Try organizing an internal debate with an opinion opposite to yours. Play the role of the devil's advocate.
Step 2. You risk making mistakes
A creative mind does not hide "behind the skirt" of secure opinions, but ruthlessly seeks the truth, aware of the risk of making mistakes. Let your curiosity and enthusiasm for some topics guide your mind and not the fear of making mistakes. Accept mistakes as opportunities, think and act at the risk of making them. To achieve greatness, one must risk failure.
- Leonardo Da Vinci enthusiastically studied physiognomy, a false science that claimed to relate a person's character to their facial features. Now this is a widely disproved concept, but in Leonardo's time it was very fashionable and may have helped him significantly to develop his interest in detailed anatomy. Although we may consider these studies of his as an "error", we can instead consider them as an anomalous springboard towards a greater truth.
- Exercise: find an ancient, disproved and controversial idea and learn everything there is to know. Consider what it means to see the world from this alternative perspective. Study the concepts of the Free Spirit or the Harmony Society and try to learn their worldview and the historical context in which these organizations have developed. Were they or are they "wrong"?
Step 3. Pursue knowledge without fear
A brilliant and curious mind embraces the unknown, the mystery and the frightening. To learn about anatomy, Leonardo spent many hours studying cadavers in conditions that were far more than unhygienic (if compared to modern pathological anatomy laboratories). His thirst for knowledge went far beyond his impressionability and allowed him to conduct pioneering studies on the human body and to pass on his drawings to us.
Exercise: do a research on a topic that scares you. Are you afraid of the end of the world? He carries out studies on the apocalypse and eschatology. Are you terrified of vampires? Dig deeper into the life of Vlad the Impaler. Does nuclear war give you nightmares? Study everything there is to know about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
Step 4. Look for a connection between things
Thinking with curiosity also means looking for patterns between ideas and images, identifying similarities and links between disparate concepts instead of emphasizing differences. Leonardo da Vinci could never have invented the "mechanical horse", which became his bicycle, if he had not found similarities between apparently distant concepts such as horse riding and gears. Try to find common ground in your interpersonal interactions, look for what you can link to an idea or problem, what you can get out of an object instead of pointing out its "flaws".
Exercise: Close your eyes and randomly draw lines or scribbles on a piece of paper. Then open your eyes and finish the drawing you started. Look at the gibberish lines you put on paper and try to shape them. Make a list of words that "come to your mind at random" and try to fit them all into a story or poem, trying to create a narrative thread from chaos.
Step 5. Come to your conclusions
A curious mind is not satisfied with "receiving" a truth from above, embracing unmotivated answers and instead chooses to verify these answers with observation of the real world, with perception and an opinion is formed based on physical experiences.
- Obviously this does not mean that you must invalidate the existence of Australia just because you have never seen it with your own eyes, but that you refrain from formulating any opinion until you have studied the subject to the fullest and experienced it in person.
- Exercise: think when your opinion has been influenced by someone or something. It's not hard to change your opinion of a movie you like just because all your friends think differently and you want to adapt. Try to watch the film with an open mind, as if you've never seen it before.
Method 2 of 3: Think Scientifically
Step 1. Ask yourself questions that require counter-proof
Sometimes the simplest questions are the most complicated ones. Why does a bird fly? Why is the sky blue? These are the kinds of questions that led Leonardo da Vinci to manifest his innovative genius and to scientific study. For him the answer: "Because God wants it to be so" was completely insufficient, especially when it should have been much more complex and much less abstract. Learn to ask probing questions about the topics that interest you and do counter-checks to get results.
Exercise: write at least five questions about a topic that fascinates you and that you would like to know better. Instead of limiting yourself to a quick wikipedia search and forgetting the subject in a short time, choose a single question from the list and try to study it and search for the answer for at least a week. How do mushrooms grow? What is coral? What is the soul? Do some research in the library. Write down everything you learn, draw drawings, meditate on the subject.
Step 2. Test your assumptions with observations
When you have formulated an opinion on a particular topic or question, when you believe you are close to a satisfactory question, determine what criteria are sufficient to accept or reject your hypothesis. What proves that you are right? What proves that you are wrong? How can you verify your idea?
Exercise: Develop a theory that can be tested as an answer to your probing question and establish a verification protocol using the scientific method. Get some substrate and grow mushrooms, try to learn all you can from the different techniques, methods and varieties of mushrooms.
Step 3. Bring your ideas to the end
A scientific thinker wonders about his hypotheses until all paths of the mind have been verified, examined, tested or rejected. Don't leave out any aspect of the research or your hypothesis. Those who do not have a scientific approach often limit themselves to one of the first simple options and answers, ignoring the more complex or complicated ones which may be even more precise. If you want to think like Leonardo da Vinci, then don't leave anything out in your search for truth.
Exercise: practice with a mind map. This is a very effective tool that allows you to combine logic and imagination both in your life and in your work. The result should be a network of words and ideas that are linked together in your mind (somehow). This structure allows you to easily remember all the nooks and crannies of your thoughts, successes and failures included. A mind map improves memory, creativity and the ability to internalize what you read.
Step 4. Develop new concepts from your mistakes
A scientist welcomes failed experiments in the same way as those that succeed: an option has been removed from the list of possible answers and brings you one step closer to the truth. Learn from the hypothesis that turned out to be wrong. If you were so sure that the way you organized your work day, wrote your novel or rebuilt the engine was so perfect, but then these beliefs proved wrong, then celebrate! You've completed an experiment and learned that this doesn't work, and it will be a lesson for next time.
Exercise: think about a particular mistake. Make a list of everything this has taught you, of everything that you will be able to do more effectively thanks to this mistake.
Method 3 of 3: Exercise Creativity
Step 1. Keep a very detailed journal and don't skimp on drawings
What we now consider priceless art was actually Leonardo's diary, full of notes and sketches. He drafted it not to make it a work of art, but because the creative act was integrated into every level of his daily life and was a way to elaborate thoughts: to write them accompanied by illustrations. Writing forces you to think differently, to articulate hazy thoughts in a specific and concrete way.
Exercise: Choose a list of topics on which you will keep a journal every day. Big topics you have opinions about like "television" or "Bob Dylan" might be appropriate. Address a topic by writing at the top of the page: "About Bob Dylan". Under this title write, draw and feel free to express any thoughts associated with it. If you come across information or things you don't know about, do some research. Learn more and more.
Step 2. Write descriptively
Expand your vocabulary and use precise words in descriptions. Make use of similes, metaphors and analogies to make concepts abstract and to find connections between various ideas. Keep investigating the hazy thoughts. Describe objects in terms of tactile sensation, smells, tastes and emotions. Do not neglect their symbolism, importance and their meaning as you experience them.
Exercise: read the poem "Fork" by Charles Simic. The author describes the most banal object of everyday life accurately, but with the eyes of someone who has never seen it.
Step 3. Observe clearly
One of Leonardo's favorite phrases was knowing how to see and on this he built his artistic and scientific work. While writing your diary, develop a keen eye in observing the world and describe it in many details. Write down what you see during the day, the surprising things, the graffiti fragments, the gestures, the weird shirts, the extravagant ways of speaking, everything that catches your attention. Become an encyclopedia of small moments and record them with words and images.
Exercise: you don't have to keep a diary like you were in the 15th century. You can use your mobile phone camera to take lots of photos on the way to work to spice up your commutes. Actively search for 10 particular images throughout your day and take photos. On your way home, think about what hit you, find connections in the chaos.
Step 4. Expand your field of interest
Leonardo da Vinci was the Platonic ideal of Renaissance Man: he was at the same time a great scientist, an artist and an inventor; Leonardo would no doubt have been very confused and frustrated by the modern concept of "career". It is quite difficult to imagine him suddenly leaving his office, finishing his working hours and going home to watch "I Cesaroni". If you are interested in a topic or project that is beyond the experience of everyday life, consider it as an opportunity rather than a challenge. Welcome the luxury of modern life that allows you to have instant access to information, to be free to pursue your experiences without limiting yourself.
Exercise: make a list of the topics and projects you want to conclude in the following months or years. Have you always wanted to compose a draft for a novel? Learning to play the banjo? There is no reason to wait for this to happen by itself. It is never too late to learn.
Advice
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Here are some of the characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci that are worth emulating:
- The charisma.
- The generosity.
- Love for nature.
- Love for animals.
- A child's curiosity.
- Read books, people like Leonardo da Vinci don't watch TV but read!
