Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2018; the sale of Salvator Mundi at the end of 2017 for 450 million dollars refers to the November 2017 auction, and the reference to the iPhone 7 places the text in 2018.
There is no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was probably one of the most brilliant minds in history, even though not everything was in his favour. Analysing Leonardo’s life and thoughts is complicated, since it all happened more than 500 years ago, but working from his manuscripts, Walter Isaacson has written another comprehensive biography, as he did with Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein. And in this case he gives us the key to Leonardo da Vinci.
Today, whenever the “Renaissance” is mentioned, Leonardo inevitably comes to mind. He was not only an artist but a prolific inventor who contributed to practically everything, from architecture and music to anatomy and geometry.
Quite a feat for a child born out of wedlock in the 15th century, which at the time meant carrying a stigma that would make things very difficult for him.
At the end of 2017, his work “Salvator Mundi” sold for a staggering 450 million dollars.
Why is Leonardo da Vinci a better role model than Albert Einstein?
Since most people who love biographies of geniuses try to learn from these brilliant minds, the biographer Walter Isaacson himself explains that Leonardo da Vinci is a better role model than Albert Einstein.
His explanation is as simple as it is sensible: Einstein’s intelligence was innate. In other words, he was born an intellectual genius with a high IQ. That is something you either have or you don’t, and so those who don’t have it cannot work to get it.
But everything suggests that, although Leonardo da Vinci was a genius unlike any other ever seen, he was not born a genius. Instead, he developed certain skills and talents himself that anyone can emulate. Anyone willing to do what Leonardo did, and anyone willing to think the way this genius thought.
Leonardo’s genius was the fruit of practice, experience and curiosity
The key to Leonardo da Vinci
As Isaacson explains, Leonardo imagined, asked, learned and devoted hours and hours to practice, only to ask again, learn again and put everything he had learned into practice once more. And this method can be replicated by anyone.
Observe without predefined distinctions
The lives of great inventors, creators and successful people have something in common: their achievements are not the product of knowledge in one specific field, but of finding a way to create an intersection between several fields.
In Leonardo’s case, he found that intersection between science and art, not through deep specialisation. In other words, through a blend and convergence of different fields, perspectives and people.
Everything suggests that Leonardo did not study art on some days and science on others; for him they were one and the same.
“There is no science or art beyond the linguistic labels used to make sense of the different aspects of the world. There is only one reality, and that reality intersects and mixes with itself in ways that cannot be captured by named disciplines.”
This way of thinking is not very different from the way the legendary Steve Jobs thought. Of course, naming things, labelling them and setting boundaries helps us organise them and make sense of them, but it also restricts our curiosity to more simplistic angles. That is how everyone thinks, because it is how society and our teachers taught us to think, and that is why people who manage to think outside the established framework end up achieving very different things, and some of them go down in history as geniuses.
Question everything: the mundane and the obvious
The 7,200 pages of Leonardo’s famous notebooks are estimated to be only a quarter of the total that probably existed. They include records of his time in Florence and Milan, showing doubts and insecurity and discussing his relationships with friends and collaborators.
In these notebooks Leonardo does not only ask big, important questions; he questions the smallest and most insignificant things. Above all, he shows a fascination with everything.
See also: Books to read to open your mind and become smarter
Leonardo in his own words
“I wandered the countryside looking for answers to things I did not understand. Why were there shells on the tops of mountains, along with the imprints of coral, plants and seaweed usually found in the sea? Why does thunder last longer than what causes it, and why does lightning become visible to the eye immediately as it is created, while thunder takes time to travel? Why does a bird hold itself up in the air? These questions and other strange phenomena occupy my thoughts throughout my life.”
While most people think certain questions don’t matter, some geniuses find a treasure when they decide to explore them in depth. Few things are interesting on the surface. The interesting part comes when you decide to dig deeper.
Experiment as if it were a work in progress
Perfectionism is now considered a curse. In fact, much of the advice we give entrepreneurs and business people is that it is better to have an imperfect product on the market than to spend years bringing the perfect product to market. Everything today can obviously be improved: if the iPhone 2 had been perfect, we wouldn’t need the iPhone 7.
Perfectionism paralyses production and creation. It stops people from finishing what they create.
Leonardo was a victim of this perfectionism, which led him to leave most of the works he started unfinished, and in fact some of his works took years or even decades to complete.
The “Mona Lisa” is said to have been produced over 10 to 14 years, and Leonardo did not consider it finished. Experts say this work of art was painted at the end of his life, because of the style used.
One thing is clear: Leonardo kept perfecting his skills until the day he died.
What we want to take from this idea is the concept of “progress”. When something is done well, it can be done better, and when it is done better, it can still be improved further.
We’ll finish with this line:
“Being curious is no guarantee of genius, but there is no genius without curiosity.”
Featured image: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
