The book Think like Da Vinci was written by Michael L Gelb. He was a great fan of two people. One was superman, and the other was Da Vinci. While he grew up, he realises that superman is not real. Then he started to collect more details about Da Vinci from various resources. He found seven things that made Da Vinci a genius
Da Vinci was an Italian polymath. He is considered as the most curious person who lived on earth. He is known for his paintings Monalisa, Last Supper, Vitruvian Man, etc. He observed and recorded various things like anatomy of the human body, how birds fly, sketch for helicopters, tanks etc. Here are the seven things that made him unique. Author uses Italian for these words they are
- Curiosita
- Dimostrazione
- Sensazione
- Sfumato
- Arte/Scienza
- Corporalita
- Connessione
Let us see this one by one
Curiosita: Da Vinci was very curious about each and everything around him. He questions everything and records his observations. He has around 13000 pages of notes and drawing in a variety of subjects. He was a child like curious from birth to death. Author says everyone is born with high curiosity, but our education system and society discourage this curiosity inside everyone
Dimostrazione: Da Vinci experimented with things he recorded and learned from the mistakes. He makes sure that what he recorded is true or false. Things we experience are less likely to be error prone and stick to memory than the things we learned by memorization.
Sensazione: Our senses are the door for information to enter our brain.If we use our senses more effectively, then we can record more information. Davinci says that the average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance and talks without thinking”.
Sfumato: Da Vinci loves paradox and ambiguity. He also tried to incorporate ambiguity into his work. He confuses others with his creation. Monalisa, The Last Supper, etc are examples for this
Arte/Scienza: We have two hemispheres in our brain. The right hemisphere is responsible for art, creativity etc and the left hemisphere is responsible for logic, math, etc. Normally everyone is dominant on one side, that is they are either left brained or right brained. But Da Vinci was a whole-brain thinker. He always said that “study the science of art and art of science”.
Corporalita: Da Vinci was an ambidextrous person. He tried to find the perfect balance between the right and left side of his body. He was able to write with both hands at the same time. We can read Da Vinci’s writing only using a mirror.
Connessione: Da Vinci tried to find the connection between different things. Our brain can recall memory easily if it’s connected to existing memory.
The author says that everyone can improve their brain potential by incorporating these seven things in life. Your brain is much better than you think. This book contains practical guides and exercise to think like Da Vinci and find Da Vinci in you.
