How to think like Leonardo da Vinci was published in 2000 and its author, Michael Gelb, spoke this week at a Singularity University conference. They have summarised the main elements of his speech (and, presumably, contents of the book) on the Singularity website. Which I read with rising ire.
For some reason, the attributes you are supposed to develop to think more like da Vinci are presented Italian. Why, I am not sure. Perhaps this gets the creative energies flowing more than plain English does. I shall extract them here so we can all start working on our Da Vinci Development Plan:
- Curiosita
- Dimonstratzione
- Sensazione
- Sfumato
- Arte/Scienza
- Corporalita
- Connessione
And so, for those of you who aren’t fluent in Italian, all that is required before you, too, can paint a Mona Lisa or invent a flying machine 420 years earlier than the next guy is:
- Be curious about everything all of the time
- Test your knowledge by demonstration to yourself and all your friends
- Continually refine all your senses
- “embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty”
- Develop your skills in both art and science
- “cultivation of ambidexterity, fitness, and poise”
- Recognise the connectedness of everything
Which is probably all good and well, and dead easy if you have benefactors and someone to do the washing and ironing. But really difficult otherwise. That skill number 8 wasn’t “learn to levitate” surprised me.
I am an eager consumer of personal development literature to assist with becoming the best version of me so I have very little need to be Leonardo da Vinci. But if I did, I wouldn’t buy Mr Gelb’s book for the following two reasons:
- I am unconvinced that this list is achievable whilst having a life.
- In setting up Leonardo as the target, how can anyone can succeed? How many Leonardos have we had since Leonardo da Vinci (no, DiCaprio and the Teenage Ninja Turtles don’t count)?
I am an advocate of personal evolution and change. However, I found this list uninspiring and downright demotivating. Presumably Mr Gelb (who is a noted creativity guru) trotted out the highlights from his old tome because creativity and the demand for it has never had the awareness it has today. But if we are to get more people to see the benefit of changing their normal ways of doing things — which is more of an urgent imperative that it’s ever been — we cannot afford to turn them off with unpronounceable lists on how to be like an historical one-off genius.
Who wants to be Leonardo da Vinci anyway?