What if I told you the secret to becoming a genius like Leonardo da Vinci wasn't just about talent, but about a handful of simple mental models anyone can learn?
Stick around, because we're about to unlock da Vinci's most powerful secrets for lifelong learning and a mind that never stops growing.
Hello, listeners.
Welcome to The Science of Self, where you improve your life from the inside out.
Today's featured book is Leonardo da Vinci's Mental Models, Secrets of the World's Most Famous Polymath.
This is from Peter Holland's Learning How to Learn book series.
Today we're looking at the beginning of Chapter 2, The Mind of the Polymath.
When we discuss the concept of a polymath, there's one trait in common among all the examples that we elicit, and that is a curiosity.
And it's possible to cultivate your own curiosity to drive yourself to becoming more of a polymath.
The beginning of this episode talks about cultivating that da Vincian curiosity.
And then, after, we'll talk about the right attitudes that are necessary for learning.
We must understand that learning never ends.
We have to test out our theories in the real world, not just in our minds or in theory.
We have to be willing to embrace the unknown.
And, as a learner, we have to be humble, childlike in our approach to learning.
We're going to delve deep into each of those phrases in this episode.
And don't forget, at the end of the episode, there'll be a summary of points with quick synopsis of the entire episode, should you need to get that takeaway in its own little segment.
Thanks for being with us today, and here's the episode.
Hopefully, you are now on your way to securing a mentor or teacher for yourself, have started to read and gradually build up your own library of books and notes, and have started paying attention to the environment around you.
As you consider your own goals, you may have come up against a pretty fundamental question: Why do any of this?
Why learn ballet or ancient Japanese calligraphy or maritime history of New England in the first place?
In the last chapter, we took steps to build a foundation onto which we can begin to build a learning life.
Now the question arises: How will we build on that foundation?
In this chapter, we’ll be considering the most fundamental traits required of a lifelong learner—and they are not tools, but rather attitudes.
As you’ll soon see, da Vinci and others like him were intelligent, but they were also masters at cultivating the mindset required to genuinely discover or create something new in their worlds.
It may just be the mindset that makes the real difference, and not the intelligence.
What exactly is the mindset required?
Arguably the most important characteristic is curiosity.
Da Vinci demonstrated an insatiable intellectual appetite that spanned diverse disciplines, including architecture, anatomy, aeronautics, and robotics.
Despite his wide-ranging talents, da Vinci also found success in theatrical production, notably designing lavish festivals in Florence and Milan.
Unashamed of his curiosity and operating in a child-like fantasy world, he prioritized safety, appreciation, and the freedom to explore over financial gain, creating not for others but to satisfy his intellectual hunger.
Unbound by formal education, he relied on acute visual thinking, seamlessly integrating groundbreaking scientific studies into his artwork and vice versa, contributing to his exceptional versatility.
Compared to the business moguls and tech billionaires who pass for genius in our modern era, da Vinci was called to something higher than financial gain or market domination.
He learned because he genuinely, sincerely wanted to know.
His curiosity was underpinned by a keen power of observation, sparking profound explorations that evolved into marvelous creativity.
Flamboyant, authentic, and unabashedly alternative, he embraced his uniqueness, exhibiting a secure and self-assured demeanor.
His self-reflective nature led to copious journal writings, capturing thoughts, frustrations, and ongoing projects.
These notes fueled his self-discovery and self-development, providing insights into his creative process and leaving behind a rich legacy for future generations to study and admire.
His life’s work was colorful, rich, and lively.
And it all started with curiosity.
Why were birds’ wings shaped the way they were?
Could it be possible for water to flow uphill?
What is truth?
What is beauty?
If I put a rudder on the bottom of this thing here, will it stop it from tipping over?
What is Neptune made of on the inside?
Cultivating Intense da Vincian Curiosity
Da Vinci lived in a curious age, and he was both the cause and result of a period of intense intellectual growth.
Our own era by comparison is stifled; those who would learn can often see no greater end purpose than perhaps “disrupting” some industry to eke out a narrow margin of profit, or acquiring a skill for the sole purpose of increasing hireability in a hostile market.
Creativity is seldom more than the recombination of tired tropes, and knowledge is demoted to mere “data”—cheap information in enormous quantities that nevertheless amounts to little.
Leonardo da Vinci fostered an intense curiosity about people and the world around him.
He knew how to ask questions to get interesting answers, utilizing the information to inspire his inventions and creations.
Da Vinci meticulously documented his inquiries and observations in numerous notebooks, chronicling days spent exploring the countryside in a quest for understanding.
His curiosity delved into diverse subjects, such as the existence of shells on mountaintops, the immediate visibility of lightning compared to the delayed sound of thunder, and the mechanics of how a bird sustains itself in flight.
Da Vinci, as described by scholar Michael Gelb, extensively studied and sketched flowers and plants from various perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of their anatomy.
In a journal entry, da Vinci expressed his fascination with the multitude of actions humans perform, the diversity of animals, trees, plants, and flowers, and the variety in landscapes, architecture, instruments, costumes, ornaments, and arts.
Beyond botany and nature, da Vinci applied his intense curiosity to his artistic creations by examining paintings through a mirror.
This reflective practice aimed to enable a more objective assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of his artworks.
This, in effect, is what curiosity is: looking at familiar things, but backward, in an attempt to see them as they really are, to see them as they are without our assumptions and foregone conclusions.
But what does curiosity look like in the internet age?
Is it possible to cultivate a little of that same attitude today, in a vastly different world to the one da Vinci inhabited?
The answer is yes!
It does, however, take a mindset shift.
Da Vinci was a genius because of what he didn’t know.
He went out in search not of questions that he could easily answer, but of those that stumped him, challenged him, and demanded much patience and diligence to answer.
What we can learn from this approach is that true genius is not about ease and accomplishment.
Rather, it’s about the process of uncovering knowledge, and the journey from ignorance to understanding.
That process isn’t always neat, pretty, or comfortable.
The person who is uneasy with mystery cannot embrace it long enough to learn from it.
The person who is too egotistical to admit they don’t know, or too proud to ask a simple question, will never have the privilege of learning or having that simple question answered (and it’s the simple ones that are often the deepest and most mysterious of all!).
One foolproof technique is to follow da Vinci’s reported childlike nature and do what all children naturally do: ask loads of questions.
The man asked questions of himself, of others, of the books he wrote, of nature itself.
He was not automatically satisfied by the easy, conventional answers of the day, either, and kept interrogating.
Why was such-and-so the case?
In Michael Gelb’s book How to Think Like a Da Vinci, he suggests the following exercise to practice formulating great questions:
1.
Try to make a list of the one hundred questions that are most important to you in one sitting.
Then, go back through the list and look for themes.
What are most of your questions actually about?
2.
Now, choose ten questions that are most important to you and rank them in importance.
These questions should relate to your broad quality of life.
Remember, learning should be focused on a goal or purpose.
3.
Next, develop ten questions from your professional field about your career or some other aspect of your professional life.
Don't be afraid to ask the simple questions, since they're often the most profound.
You can also take a page out of esteemed Richard Feynman’s book and compile your own list of twelve burning questions—things that you are truly, almost maddeningly curious about.
Compiling and regularly updating this list not only keeps you focused and “on purpose,” but it also allows you to uncover interesting areas of overlap between seemingly disparate areas.
Renaissance thinkers were looking for big ideas that encapsulated all subjects.
If you look at your list, can you find what connects two seemingly unrelated questions?
Finally, one useful technique is to actively welcome your mistakes and convert them into questions that will help you learn.
If you failed at something, ask why and be genuinely open to learning the answer.
Rather than enjoying the knowledge you’re accumulating, look more closely at the gaps and what you are currently ignorant of, or else the assumptions you are making.
If you have a blind spot, how can you address the issue?
Who can you ask?
If you don’t have the answer, then where might it be?
Having an open, receptive mindset means accepting that fumbling in the dark is a big part of being a creator, inventor, scientist, and thinker.
Start with your own pet theories and biases.
Do you have quality evidence for your various beliefs and theories?
Challenge yourself if nobody else will challenge you—make your ideas earn their keep!
Remember, too, that just because you don’t know something now, it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn it.
Lacking a skill today doesn’t mean you will lack it forever.
Just be curious about the next step.
Learn a little every day, fine-tune your skill one step at a time, and you cannot help but learn.
The Right Attitude
Though it’s probably going too far to suggest that Renaissance-era polymaths possessed a certain type of personality, it is true that they conducted themselves in remarkably similar ways—in other words, their approach to life was predictable.
Idea 1: Learning never ends
Commit to continuous learning.
We develop not so that we can arrive at the end of our development.
We continue on—one horizon, once reached, opens up to another.
There’s no doubt that had da Vinci lived longer than his almost seventy years, he would have continued to learn and create.
What’s required is that we don’t get too comfortable in what we already know, what we’ve already achieved, and the skills we’ve already acquired.
Instead, we need to keep learning alive by asking what remains unknown, unachieved, and unacquired.
Idea 2: Test out your theories in the real world
Apply everything you learn, develop, or create to the real world and the practical goals you have there.
It can be a trap to get lost in abstraction; instead, continually see how your predictions and ideas measure up against reality.
Do they work?
How do they compare to what’s currently out there?
How can you test and improve on what you’ve done?
Experience is a master teacher, if you’re courageous enough to embrace your mistakes and failures.
Idea 3: Embrace the unknown
Da Vinci was a man of science and learning, but he was also a Catholic and a “spiritual metaphysician” who would have embedded all his learning in a framework wherein God was the master mathematician, artist, and architect of the universe itself.
All this is to say that for a man like da Vinci, the world was not a machine to be broken into parts and coldly analyzed, but a beautiful mystery.
Great thinkers of old had a depth and nobility of soul that helped them understand the value of the mysterious and the enigmatic.
Practically speaking, this meant that their curiosity was often tinged with awe, respect, and wonder.
They were comfortable with ambiguity and could endure paradox and contradiction for a long time as they chiseled away at problems, trying to grasp their deeper meaning.
Uncertainty, then, is not an enemy to be destroyed but something that is always beckoning, something to relish and appreciate.
Idea 4: Be humble
Learning is about the privilege of knowing the previously unknown and seeing the previously unseen; it’s not about the glory and vanity of being the knower or the seer.
Being humble has practical value, too.
Those people who are best able to move past mistakes, faulty assumptions, outright failures, and wrong turns are the ones who are quickest to get on with the real work of doing better.
Ego and pride only get in the way—bearing in mind that feeling down on yourself or overly pessimistic is a kind of vanity, too!
If something is difficult or beyond you, don’t give up simply because it’s a little humiliating to be confronted with evidence of your limitations.
If you receive a correction or critical feedback, realize that there’s nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to defend against.
Da Vinci and many others like him were fantastically wrong about more things than the average human being.
The trick is to see far beyond “right” and “wrong” and simply become curious about what is.
In conclusion, embracing the spirit of lifelong learning can truly transform our mindset and unlock endless possibilities.
Here are the primary takeaways from today's episode.
The most fundamental trait of a lifelong learner, like da Vinci, is an attitude of insatiable curiosity.
Shift your mindset toward a focus on unanswered questions.
Be childlike and continually experiment with different perspectives.
Keep a running list of open questions to guide and inspire your learning.
The right attitude is patient enough to practice learning as a lifelong pursuit, humble enough to engage with mistakes and the unknown, and practical enough to use real-world experience to inform one's mental models.
So with all that in mind, go forth, explore, and let curiosity be your guide.
As Leonardo himself urged, learning never exhausts the mind.