How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday

I am just about to finish a PhD on electronics engineering.
As a researcher you need to be very skillful in problem solving by being good at learning, raising questions, proposing possible solutions, moving in ambigous conditions, building connections between different problems.

This book covers all these skills needed by anybody who wants to be more creative in life and particularly it is a great book for a problem solver.

I knew the ideas given in the book generally before reading them and were applying the exercises upto some point. But I were not doing in an organized fashion and hence were not getting as much as I should have got.
This book gives a broad picture of how to be creative and productive.

The ideas are first parallelled with Leonardo da Vinci's life and practices then some exercies are presented.

There are mainly seven points lying in Leonardo's approaches:
being curious, asking questions and learning continously,
applying knowledge in practical situations and learning from mistakes,
full use of senses and practices for sharpening them,
ability of moving in unclear conditions,
keeping the body healthy and balanced,
combining science and art,
forming connections between different observations and problems.

I recommend this book to anybody who cares about being more creative, productive, efficient.

Superficial Observations and Brilliant Self-Help Exercises (22/23 people found this helpful)

This book is very hard for me to grade. It contains some of the best and worst material I have ever seen, all in the same book. That combination is unprecedented in my experience.

If the book were solely built around the exercises, I would say that it deserved more than five stars.

If the book were soley built around the analysis and history of Leonardo da Vinci as a thinker, I would grade it at two stars.

The exercises are so terrific that I urge you to read the book. I also urge you to see the text leading up to the exercises as merely an introduction to the excercises.

If you want to learn about Leonardo da Vinci as a thinker, I suggest you go elsewhere for that guidance. I do encourage you read the Leonardo notebooks directly. They are fascinating. While you are doing so, try to imagine yourself with the limited scientific knowledge of the day. One of the things that you will learn is the power of conceptualizing what is needed that is missing. This helps to set the goal that energizes those who then meet the goal. Leonardo had enormous influence in this way with his pioneering work on helicopters, submarines, parachutes, and many mechanical devices.

Research on creativity and innovation has shown that it is valuable to increase one's curiosity, testing of ideas, observation skills, openness to new ideas and ambiguity, whole-brained thinking, balance in life activities, and seeing systems connections. This book espouses those concepts as well. In fact, it felt to me like the author was more influenced by the creativity and innovation literature than by Leonardo. If the book had drawn on more of this kind of research, rather than just trying to oversimpify Leonardo da Vinci, it would have been a better book.

As I read the book, I did at least one exercise in each section. I found these exercises to be very well constructed and that I derived great personal value from the experiences they gave me. I think you will feel the same way, if you are like me and want to improve your ability to see, hear, feel and grasp.

The only totally inappropriate exercise I encountered was one that encouraged you to write backwards like Leonardo did. You should know that I am probably biased on this, for this habit of Leonardo's is primarily responsible for a miscommunication of his work that delayed the pursuit of many of his best ideas by others. Civilization is the poorer, as a result.

The book also has a lot of self-assessments to help you understand what you need to work on. I found these to be below-par in value.

The worst part of the book were the very poor reproductions of paintings by Leonardo. The Last Supper can barely be discerned. If images cannot be better reproduced than this, they should be left out of the book.

After you have thought about reading this book or actually do so, I suggest that you also question as to whether or not your goal should be to think more like Leonardo da Vinci. True, he was a great genius. But he had his drawbacks. Most of his ideas did not see fruition in his own lifetime. He also spent most of his time either entertaining noble patrons with songs and stories or with creating war machines. What legacy would you like to leave? A legacy can be shaped by your thoughts. What thoughts will expand your legacy. Mother Teresa did not have to think like Leonardo to leave a great legacy.

a simple portal into a complex artist (13/15 people found this helpful)

Gelb's book is a welcome introduction to the great artist's work. Ratherthan attempting to do justice to his prodigious output, the authorconcentrates on what is distinctive about Leonardo's way of thinking. Thushe can isolate 7 factors that link the engineering with the anatomy andthe painting etc. These are what form the core form the book and arereally interesting in themselves:
1. Curiosity
2. Knowing how to see
3. Demonstration and the importance of making ideas concrete
4. Sensation and the role of the senses
5. Connection-making
6. The link between art and science
7. â¬ÜSfumatoâ¬", the art of being comfortable with ambiguity.
These principles give a wonderful practitionerâ¬"s insight into creativeactivity of all kinds. Each is outlined as a practical technique withexercises to practice on.

Exceptional, inspiring, balanced in flow and content (15/16 people found this helpful)

A book that deserves a special place in our journey in discovering and living our potential. Great on facts, extremely well presented...it leaves the readers with a feeling that creativity is a birthright...and that being so is a matter of us living life in a certain way...which the book details. The exercises at the end, esp for a beginner learning to draw, are also unique.

How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday

Michael Gelb

Reader Reviews:

a great book for improving the thinking and problem solving (16/17 people found this helpful)

Superficial Observations and Brilliant Self-Help Exercises (22/23 people found this helpful)

a simple portal into a complex artist (13/15 people found this helpful)

Exceptional, inspiring, balanced in flow and content (15/16 people found this helpful)

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