Lessons in Learning and Creativity From Da Vinci

 No doubt. We are big fans of great thinkers. Our top thinker of all time? It has to be Da Vinci. Why do you ask? For his abilities in learning and creativity, without a doubt. A mathematician. A scientist. An engineer. An anatomist. A creative and learner. Always learning and creating.

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when shown, and those that do not see.

• Leonardo Da Vinci

Do you see? Maybe the lessons from Da Vinci will help. So what would be the lessons in learning and creativity derived from Da Vinci? Here are the ones we continually come back to:

Sketching and note taking

Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages. By hand, on individual sheets of paper. A sketch in the center, simple and done quickly, the label on top, annotations along the sides, arrows pointing to key content. Sometimes a short summary on the bottom.

Divergent thinking first

Alone for the first few iterations divergent thinking. Time to generate lots of ideas, and to reflect. Incubate ideas. Ask himself lots of questions. Always observing and studying. Think about the age of Da Vinci … no computers, few books, and few experts in fields of his interests. Just his ability to see and observe using notes to record for further study.

Convergent thinking later

Da Vinci often reviewed his work with respected peers after he had finished incubating his ideas. It was an opportunity to refine his ideas. Time to collaborate. He was way ahead of his time in most topics, so many of his good ideas were rejected. He didn’t lose his desire or his persistence by the rejections. But remember … 13,000 sketches led to at least 3 masterpieces. Persistence is a key, isn’t it? Perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people.

Save and revisit later

Most of Da Vinci’s sketches were done on individual sheets of paper. Not in a constrained notebook. He understood the value of multiple revisits and connecting, reconnecting, and grouping related facts and observations. An analogy expert. And an uncanny ability to connect several different observations and ideas to create new ideas.

Defer judgment

His basis of study was simple observation and notes/questions on his observations. He withheld judgments, either positive or negative, for as long as possible. Particularly his own. He appreciated that judgment would be a block to creativity and new ideas.

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions”

Curiosity and questions

Perhaps Da Vinci’s greatest asset was his insatiable curiosity. The more observations and connections of ideas, the more questions, and curiosity. And creative ideas.

Stimulate imagination

Da Vinci used divergent thinking to create lots of ideas. Lots of ideas, questions, and curiosity to stimulate his imagination. He minimized the limitations and constraints when using his imagination to think of the solution space to his many questions.

Do you see? Very, very few of Da Vinci’s abilities are in the populace. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be creative … it can be learned. Can you use these lessons to learn to see or see better? Give it a try. Practice and be persistent. Stick with it and over the long haul, you will see some good dividends.

Have you found additional ways of learning and creativity? Have a story on your experiences to share with this community?

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