How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci

Five years ago, I heard a forum speech about thinking.  The speaker shared synonyms for the word think.  Ratiocinate, cerebrate, mentate, and lucubrate were some of the words I liked.  It was a good speech.

Over the years, I have been interested in thinking and how to improve my thinking.  So it is totallly understandable that when I saw the book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci I was intrigued.  I wanted that book.  I wanted to read that book.  Finally, I bought it and read it.  And, here’s what I think about it.

First, I learned a few things about da Vinci that I didn’t know:  he was beautiful (intriguing that he wasn’t considered handsome), that he was athletic, and that he enjoyed riding horses.  I never took a humanities class in college (back in the Mesozoic era, it wasn’t a requirement) so I didn’t know that he was born out of wedlock, that his father was a prosperous accountant, and that his mother was a peasant.  I didn’t know that illegitimate children at that time were not allowed to follow their father’s career footsteps and that was why he was apprenticed to a sculptor. It’s nice to have more information in my brain about this very famous and influential man.  Finally.

After studying da Vinci’s myriad notebooks, Gelb (the author) concluded that there were 7 areas that da Vinci excelled in.  Gelb suggested that if we improved ourselves in these areas, our thinking would improve. Sounds good to me.

Those seven areas are: curiosity; testing knowledge through experienced (or learning from our mistakes); refinement of our senses; willingness to embrace ambiguity; whole brain thinking (having a balance between art and science); cultivating grace; ambidexterity, fitness, and poise; and systems thinking.

So what’s my take away from reading the book?

• Develop a desire to learn about a wider range of things.  Not be so narrowly focused.
• Embrace my mistakes as wonderful learning opportunities (instead of horridly embarrassing or painful experiences).
• Work on poise.
• Use mind mapping.

This statement was at the beginning of a chapter:  “Your brain is much better than you think.”  (Someone, please tell that to my children.  Please!!)  This quote gives me hope.

Was it worth the money I spent on the book?  Would I recommend it to others?  I think not.