Behind Leonardo Da Vinci's Brilliance

I’ve been doing a self-study of Leonardo Da Vinci. My goal is to understand how one person could learn and achieve so much. He was skilled in a wide variety of subjects including sculpting, anatomy, engineering, botany, architecture, music, mathematics, hydraulics, geology, and more.

Here are my insights/opinions:

Timing: Da Vinci was born right after the printing press was invented, making it easier to acquire books on a variety of topics. This was also the Renaissance, a time when it was admired to be a polymath and the culture rubbed off on him. For much of his life, he lived in Florence, which was a hot spot for renaissance people to gather.

Circumstances: He was born out of wedlock and was considered illegitimate, which turned out to be advantageous to him. If he were legitimate, his father would have likely given him a formal education to become a Notary. His informal education taught him how to read and write. However, he was largely self-taught through testing his ideas and experimentation. The most important thing he learned during his earlier years was how to learn.

Mentor: Da Vinci’s mentor, Andrea del Verrocchio, was a talented artist who ran a workshop in Florence, exposing him to artistic techniques. Verrocchio’s and Leonardo’s paintings look very similar for a time period. This reveals the influence a great mentor can have on one’s work.

Overlapping of Skills: Da Vinci’s pursuit of knowledge in one domain enhanced his understanding of another. His skill in art and drawing allowed him to create accurate designs for theatrical stage machinery and anatomy drawings.

Openness to New Experiences: When he was primarily an artist, he sent a letter to the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, advertising himself as an engineer and architect who could design military machines like catapults and portable bridges. This was a bold move as he had very little experience designing military machinery.

Relentless Curiosity: He constantly took notes about any question that popped into his mind like how the tongue of a woodpecker works. He also dissected more than 30 corpses so that he could draw nerves, bones, and tissues but never published his drawings. It was his curiosity that led him to stay up at night doing this.

I think some practical ways we can all emulate Da Vinci is to always stay curious, take notes about the random questions we have, stay open to new experiences, and seek great mentors. As for timing and circumstances, it's helpful to take an objective look at our world and adapt accordingly. In a lot of ways, the advent of AI mirrors Da Vinci’s time when the printing press took off. Similar to how Da Vinci had easy access to information as a result of the printing press, we have access to artificial intelligence that can help us more easily understand concepts and gain knowledge in a variety of subjects.

Most of the information in this post comes from Walter Isaacson’s book:

"Leonardo da Vinci"