Читать книгу Think Like Da Vinci: 7 Easy Steps to Boosting Your Everyday Genius - Michael Gelb - Страница 22

Leonardo da Vinci carried a notebook with him at all times so that he could jot down ideas, impressions, and observations as they occurred. His notebooks (seven thousand pages exist; most scholars estimate that this is about one half of the amount he left to Francesco Melzi in his will) contained jokes and fables, the observations and thoughts of scholars he admired, personal financial records, letters, reflections on domestic problems, philosophical musings and prophecies, plans for inventions, and treatises on anatomy, botany, geology, flight, water, and painting.

“This is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping afterwards to arrange them according to the subjects of which they treat; and I believe that I shall have to repeat the same thing several times; for which, O reader, blame me not … ”

– FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF ONE OF LEONARDO’S MANUSCRIPTS ON PHYSICS

Notes on different subjects are frequently scribbled on the same page, and many observations appear more than once, in different sections. And, of course, the pages are filled with glorious sketches, doodles, and illustrations. Although he expressed an intention to organize and publish them someday, he never got around to it. He was too busy searching for truth and beauty. For Da Vinci, the process of recording questions, observations, and ideas was of great importance.

You can, like Leonardo, facilitate Curiosità by keeping a notebook or journal. Get a bound notebook or journal filled with blank pages. You can use anything from the eighty-nine-cent K mart version to a fancy one with an inspiring image on the front cover. The important thing is to carry it with you everywhere and write in it regularly. Supplement your notebook with scrapbooks or files on diverse areas of interest. Cut out and collect newspaper and magazine articles, or download information from the Internet, on any subject you fancy – science, art, music, food, health …

As Leonardo did, use your notebook to record your questions, observations, insights, jokes, dreams, and musings (mirror writing is optional).

Busy lives and job responsibilities tend to drive us toward hard conclusions and measurable results, but the exploratory, free-flowing, unfinished, nonjudgmental practice of keeping a Da Vincian notebook encourages freedom of thought and expansion of perspective. In the manner of the maestro, don’t worry about order and logical flow, just record.

Try the following Curiosità exercises in your notebook: