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How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day Paperback – February 8, 2000
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Acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, who has helped thousands of people expand their minds to accomplish more than they ever thought possible, shows you how. Drawing on Da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, Gelb introduces Seven Da Vincian Principles—the essential elements of genius—from curiosità, the insatiably curious approach to life to connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as your inspiration, you will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking. And step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, you will harness the power—and awesome wonder—of your own genius, mastering such life-changing abilities as:
•Problem solving
•Creative thinking
•Self-expression
•Enjoying the world around you
•Goal setting and life balance
•Harmonizing body and mind
Drawing on Da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, introduces seven Da Vincian principles, the essential elements of genius, from curiosita, the insatiably curious approach to life, to connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as their inspiration, readers will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking.
Step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, anyone can harness the power and awesome wonder of their own genius, mastering such life-changing skills as problem solving, creative thinking, self-expression, goal setting and life balance, and harmonizing body and mind.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDell
- Publication dateFebruary 8, 2000
- Dimensions6.97 x 0.71 x 8.43 inches
- ISBN-100440508274
- ISBN-13978-0440508274
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A brilliant, practical guide to awakening and training our vast, unused resources of intelligence and ability."—Ted Hughes, author of Birthday Letters
"Buy it. Read it! Live it!"—Tony Buzan, author of The Book of Genius and The Mind Map Book
From the Inside Flap
Acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, who has helped thousands of people expand their minds to accomplish more than they ever thought possible, shows you how. Drawing on Da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, Gelb introduces Seven Da Vincian Principles--the essential elements of genius--from "curiosita, the insatiably curious approach to life to "connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as your inspiration, you will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking. And step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, you will harness the power--and awesome wonder--of your own genius, mastering such life-changing abilities as:
Problem solving
Creative thinking
Self-expression
Enjoying the world around you
Goal setting and life balance
Harmonizing body and mind
Drawing on Da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, introduces seven Da Vincian principles, the essential elements of genius, from curiosita, the insatiably curious approach to life, to connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as their inspiration, readers will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking.
Step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, anyone can harness the power and awesome wonder of their owngenius, mastering such life-changing skills as problem solving, creative thinking, self-expression, goal setting and life balance, and harmonizing body and mind. --
From the Back Cover
-- problem solving
-- creative thinking
-- self-expression
-- enjoying the world around you
-- goal setting and life balance
-- harmonizing body and mind
About the Author
Michael is the author of 15 books including the international bestseller How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: 7 Steps to Genius Every Day. Other titles include Creativity On Demand, Innovate Like Edison, Discover Your Genius and Thinking for a Change. Michael's books have been translated into 25 languages and have sold more than one million copies.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Although it is hard to overstate Leonardo da Vinci's brilliance, recent scientific research reveals that you probably underestimate your own capabilities. You are gifted with virtually unlimited potential for learning and creativity. Ninety-five percent of what we know about the capabilities of the human brain has been learned in the last twenty years. Our schools, universities, and corporations are only beginning to apply this emerging understanding of human potential. Let's set the stage for learning how to think like Leonardo by considering the contemporary view of intelligence and some results of the investigation into the nature and extent of your brain's potential.
Most of us grew up with a concept of intelligence based on the traditional IQ test. The IQ test was originated by Alfred Binet (1857-1911) to measure, objectively, comprehension, reasoning, and judgment. Binet was motivated by a powerful enthusiasm for the emerging discipline of psychology and a desire to overcome the cultural and class prejudices of late nineteenth-century France in the assessment of children's academic potential. Although the traditional concept of IQ was a breakthrough at the time of its formulation, contemporary research shows that it suffers from two significant flaws.
The first flaw is the idea that intelligence is fixed at birth and immutable. Although individuals are endowed genetically with more or less talent in a given area, researchers such as Buzan, Machado, Wenger, and many others have shown that IQ scores can be raised significantly through appropriate training. In a recent statistical review of more than two hundred studies of IQ published in the journal Nature, Bernard Devlin concluded that genes account for no more than 48 percent of IQ. Fifty-two percent is a function of prenatal care, environment, and education.
The second weakness in the commonly held concept of intelligence is the idea that the verbal and mathematical reasoning skills measured by IQ tests (and SATs) are the sine qua nons of intelligence. This narrow view of intelligence has been thoroughly debunked by contemporary psychological research. In his modern classic, Frames of Mind (1983), psychologist Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences, which posits that each of us possesses at least seven measurable intelligences (in later work Gardner and his colleagues catalogued twenty-five different subintelligences). The seven intelligences, and some genius exemplars (other than Leonardo da Vinci, who was a genius in all of these areas) of each one, are:
Logical-Mathematical—Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie
Verbal-Linguistic—William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Jorge Luis Borges
Spatial-Mechanical—Michelangelo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Buckminster Fuller
Musical—Mozart, George Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald
Bodily-Kinesthetic—Morihei Ueshiba, Muhammad Ali, F. M. Alexander
Interpersonal-Social—Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth I
Intrapersonal (Self-knowledge)—Viktor Frankl, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa
The theory of multiple intelligences is now accepted widely and when combined with the realization that intelligence can be developed throughout life, offers a powerful inspiration for aspiring Renaissance men and women.
In addition to expanding the understanding of the nature and scope of intelligence, contemporary psychological research has revealed startling truths about the extent of your potential. We can summarize the results with the phrase: Your brain is much better than you think. Appreciating your phenomenal cortical endowment is a marvelous point of departure for a practical study of Da Vincian thinking. Contemplate the following: your brain
is more flexible and multidimensional than any supercomputer.
can learn seven facts per second, every second, for the rest of your life and still have plenty of room left to learn more.
will improve with age if you use it properly.
is not just in your head. According to renowned neuroscientist Dr. Candace Pert, ". . . intelligence is located not only in the brain but in cells that are distributed throughout the body.... The traditional separation of mental processes, including emotions, from the body is no longer valid."
is unique. Of the six billion people currently living and the more than ninety billion people who have ever lived, there has never, unless you are an identical twin, been anyone quite like you. Your creative gifts, your fingerprints, your expressions, your DNA, your dreams, are unprecedented and unique.
is capable of making a virtually unlimited number of synaptic connections or potential patterns of thought.
This last point was established first by Pyotr Anokhin of Moscow University, a student of the legendary psychological pioneer Ivan Pavlov. Anokhin staggered the entire scientific community when he published his research in 1968 demonstrating that the minimum number of potential thought patterns the average brain can make is the number 1 followed by 10.5 million kilometers of typewritten zeros.
Anokhin compared the human brain to "a multidimensional musical instrument that could play an infinite number of musical pieces simultaneously." He emphasized that each of us is gifted with a birthright of virtually unlimited potential. And he proclaimed that no man or woman, past or present, has fully explored the capacities of the brain. Anokhin would probably agree, however, that Leonardo da Vinci could serve as a most inspiring example for those of us wishing to explore our full capacities.
LEARNING FROM LEONARDO
Baby ducks learn to survive by imitating their mothers. Learning through imitation is fundamental to many species, including humans. As we become adults, we have a unique advantage: we can choose whom and what to imitate. We can also consciously choose new models to replace the ones we outgrow. It makes sense, therefore, to choose the best "role models" to guide and inspire us toward the realization of our potential.
So, if you want to become a better golfer, study Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. If you want to become a leader, study Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and Queen Elizabeth I. And if you want to be a Renaissance man or woman, study Leon Battista Alberti, Thomas Jefferson, Hildegard von Bingen, and best of all, Leonardo da Vinci.
In The Book of Genius Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene make the world's first objective attempt to rank the greatest geniuses of history. Rating their subjects in categories including "Originality," "Versatility," "Dominance-in-Field," "Universality-of-Vision, " and "Strength and Energy," they offer the following as their "top ten."
10. Albert Einstein
9. Phidias (architect of Athens)
8. Alexander the Great
7. Thomas Jefferson
6. Sir Isaac Newton
5. Michelangelo
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3. The Great Pyramid Builders
2. William Shakespeare
And the greatest genius of all time, according to Buzan and Keene's exhaustive research? Leonardo da Vinci.
As Giorgio Vasari wrote of Leonardo in the original version of his The Lives of the Artists, "Heaven sometimes sends us beings who represent not humanity alone but divinity itself, so that taking them as our models and imitating them, our minds and the best of our intelligence may approach the highest celestial spheres. Experience shows that those who are led to study and follow the traces of these marvelous geniuses, even if nature gives them little or no help, may at least approach the supernatural works that participate in his divinity."
Our evolving understanding of the multiplicity of intelligence and the capacities of the brain suggests that nature gives us more help than we might have imagined. In How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci we will "study and follow the traces" of this most marvelous of all geniuses, bringing his wisdom and inspiration to your life, every day.
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO GENIUS
In the pages that follow you will learn a practical approach, tested in experience, for applying the essential elements of Leonardo's genius to enrich your life. You will discover an exhilarating, original way of seeing and enjoying your world as you develop powerful strategies for creative thinking and new approaches to self-expression. You'll learn proven techniques for sharpening your senses, liberating your unique intelligence, and harmonizing body and mind. With Leonardo as your inspiration, you will make your life a work of art.
Although you may already be familiar with Da Vinci's life and work, you'll finish this book with a fresh perspective and a deeper appreciation for this most enigmatic figure. Looking at the world from his point of view, you may also get a taste of the loneliness genius brings. But I guarantee that you'll be uplifted by his spirit, inspired by his quest, and exalted by your association with him.
The book begins with a capsule review of the Renaissance and its parallels with our time, followed by a biographical sketch of Leonardo and a summary of his major accomplishments. The heart of the book is the discussion of the Seven Da Vincian Principles. These principles are drawn from an intensive study of the man and his methods. I've named them in Leonardo's native Italian. The good news is that Leonardo's principles will probably be intuitively obvious to you. You do not have to try to invent them in your life. Rather, like much of common sense, they need to be remembered, developed, and applied.
The Seven Da Vincian Principles are:
Curiosità—An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
Dimostrazione—A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
Sensazione—The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.
Sfumato (literally "Going up in Smoke")—A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
Arte/Scienza—The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. "Whole-brain" thinking.
Corporalita—The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
Connessione—A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.
Having read this far, you are already applying the first Da Vincian principle. Curiosità—the quest for continuous learning—comes first because the desire to know, to learn, and to grow is the powerhouse of knowledge, wisdom, and discovery.
If you are interested in thinking for yourself and freeing your mind from limiting habits and preconceptions, then you are on track for the second principle: Dimostrazione. In his search for truth, Da Vinci insisted on questioning conventional wisdom. He used the word dimostrazione to express the importance of learning for oneself, through practical experience.
Pause for a few moments, and recall the times in the past year when you felt most vividly alive. Chances are, your senses were heightened. Our third principle—Sensazione—focuses on sharpening the senses, consciously. Leonardo believed that refining sensory awareness was the key to enriching experience.
As you sharpen your senses, probe the depths of experience, and awaken your childlike powers of questioning, you will encounter increasing uncertainty and ambiguity. "Confusion endurance" is the most distinctive trait of highly creative people, and Leonardo probably possessed more of that trait than anyone who has ever lived. Principle number four—Sfumato—guides you to be more at home with the unknown, to make friends with paradox.
For balance and creativity to emerge from uncertainty requires principle number five—Arte/Scienza—or what we now call whole-brain thinking. But Da Vinci believed that balance was more than just mental. He exemplified and affirmed the importance of principle number six—Corporalita—the balance of body and mind. And if you appreciate patterns, relationships, connections, and systems—if you seek to understand how your dreams, goals, values, and highest aspirations can be integrated into your daily life—then you are already applying principle number seven: Connessione. Connessione ties everything together.
Each principle is highlighted by excerpts from the maestro's notebooks and illustrated with his sketches or paintings. This illumination is followed by some questions for reflection and self-assessment. These questions are designed to stimulate your thinking and inspire your application of the principles. The questions are followed by a program of practical exercises for cultivating a personal and professional Renaissance. To get the most benefit from How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci, read the whole book first, without doing the exercises. Just contemplate the questions for reflection and self-assessment. After this preview, review the explanation of each principle and then do the exercises. Some of the exercises are easy and fun, while others require challenging inner work. All are designed to bring the spirit of the maestro to your daily life. In addition to the exercises, you will find an annotated reading and resource list to guide you in exploring and applying each principle. The reading list includes recommendations on the Renaissance, the history of ideas, the nature of genius, and, of course, the life and work of Leonardo.
In the final section of the book you will discover "The Beginner's Da Vinci Drawing Course," and you'll also learn how you can participate in a history-making project that embodies the essence of the Da Vincian spirit.
Product details
- Publisher : Dell; Revised edition (February 8, 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0440508274
- ISBN-13 : 978-0440508274
- Item Weight : 1.04 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.97 x 0.71 x 8.43 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #33,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #130 in Creativity (Books)
- #389 in Encyclopedias & Subject Guides
- #1,248 in Motivational Self-Help (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

https://michaelgelb.com
Meet Michael J. Gelb
The world’s leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development, Michael J. Gelb is a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, innovative leadership and executive coaching. His clients include DuPont, Emerson, Genentech, KPMG, Merck, Microsoft, Nike and YPO.
Michael is a Senior Fellow at The Center for Humanistic Management and a member of the Leading People and Organizations Advisory Board at the Fordham University Gabelli School of Business. Michael was also awarded a Batten Fellowship in Innovation from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business, and he co-directed the acclaimed Leading Innovation Seminar there for more than 10 years. Michael was honored as “Brain Of the Year” (1999) by the Brain Trust Charity – other recipients include Steven Hawking, Garry Kasparov and Edward De Bono.
Michael is the author of 17 books including "How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci," "Discover Your Genius," "Innovate Like Edison," and "The Art of Connection: 7 Relationship Building Skills Every Leader Needs Now."
Michael’s books have been translated into 25 languages and have sold more than one million copies. His most recent release, co-authored with Prof. Raj Sisodia, is "The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World," and his next book (September, 2020) is "Mastering the Art of Public Speaking: 8 Secrets to Transform Fear and Supercharge Your Career."
Fun Facts
A professional juggler who performed with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, Gelb introduced the idea of teaching juggling to promote accelerated learning and team-building. He is the author of "The 5 Keys to High Performance: Juggling Your Way to Success."
A passionate wine lover, Gelb is the originator of a unique and enjoyable approach to teambuilding as expressed in "Wine Drinking For Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative Juices."
Michael trained as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, (the method taught at The Juilliard School for cultivating commanding stage presence), while completing his Masters degree. His thesis became his first book – "Body Learning: An Introduction to the Alexander Technique."
A fifth degree black belt in the martial art of Aikido, Gelb is co-author with Grandmaster Raymond Keene, of "Samurai Chess: Mastering Strategic Thinking Through the Martial Art of the Mind."
For more Information about Executive Leadership and Life Coaching, visit https://healingleader.com
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Gelb organizes his understanding of Leonardo according to seven key "principles" which he believes Leonardo exemplified and made him the polymath and virtuoso that he was. While one could debate Gelb's list, I think it's a reasonable list, and is certainly at least a helpful starting point. Let's look at the list specifically:
1. Curiosita is the drive to understand, learn, and grow, and surely must be the foundation for everything else. In terms of humanistic/positive psychology, this is similar to the drive to actualize one's potential.
2. Dimostrazione is about grounding oneself in empirical reality, including learning from experience. This reflects a scientific and pragmatic mindset.
3. Sensazione is about being genuinely perceptive, including both noticing fine details (as taught in science and art) and being mindful in general (as taught in some Eastern philosophies).
4. Sfumato is the necessity of becoming comfortable with the ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty we unavoidably encounter in our lives and the world. Without this flexibility and adaptiveness of mind, we are doomed to becoming confined within a very narrow domain of experience and our effectiveness in life is greatly diminished.
5. Arte/Scienza is about balance between holistic/creative and reductionistic/analytical thinking. I think that Gelb's choice of terminology is a bit caricatured and misleading here, since both art and science require both kinds of thinking if they are to be done well, but we all get his point ...
6. Corporalita is about maintaining your body's health and refining your body's abilities. While physical ability could be considered a bonus, health is clearly a necessary condition.
7. Connessione is about understanding and appreciating how everything is connected. This relates to sfumato and the arte/scienza balance, and also the modern theories of systems, networks, complexity, etc.
Building on this scheme of seven principles, Gelb provides a large number of exercises intended to aid our development in each of these areas. Hardly anyone will find time to do all of the exercises, but you could still try a targeted selection of them. However, I have to say that I wonder about the sense in doing such exercises. My understanding is that Leonardo was immersed in and engaged in life itself, rather than "preparing" for life by doing these sorts of somewhat contrived exercises. Can't the rest of us do the same? I personally remain busy with activities which cover all of Gelb's principles, and I wouldn't want to give up any of those activities for the sake of doing exercises. To me, it's like the difference between playing video games in your basement versus going out in the sun and participating in actual sports.
My only other criticism of the book is that it seems to necessarily preach to the choir. People who are already fans of Leonardo and what he was trying to do will naturally be drawn to this book, but I wonder if this book could have any real impact for people who don't come to it with curiosita in the first place.
That said, if you're already a member of the choir, I think you'll enjoy this book and might even be able to get something out of the exercises, so I can recommend the book to you.
Note: I've gone through this book in both unabridged audiobook and print format. Given all the exercises in the book, the audiobook is an unsuitable format.
If you really want to see the "world" (cliche' but I do mean the entire world: your dog, your business, your lover's response, the smell of air) in a new way and if you really try to do so, then you know how difficult a task it can be to catch a new glimpse or a new idea. Though it's not too difficult to find what other's have already pointed out, it's the place of prophets and poets and the great entrepreneurs to see something new. As a research chemist 20 years ago, and now as a physician involved in research, I use a very powerful tool that helps improve vision; the tool (the notebook)and good techniques for using it are described in this book.
I see peole buy notebooks and diaries for school and personal use but I don't know many people who catch the real power of this tool. You could read this whole book (How to Think Like...) and not catch the power of the tool without giving the notebook technique a try. You could try the technique and not catch the power unless you keep trying and keep revising techniques and keep trying to see and to hear and to block out the voice of your teachers who told you what to see and what to hear.
Einsten kept a notebook with him even when he went sailing. Another famous mathematician kept notes and had theories even about why the good guy is quicker in a western gun fight. King David must have kept an extensive notebook (we read some of his notes in the Psalms). Seems most people have the idea that personal notebooks are for 13 year old girls to decipher puberty. But ship captains, scientists, poets, businessmen (who mostly journal expenses), track stars (who keep up with workouts) and people who accomplish great things or bite off great fun keep journals.
Nope, I don't have a Nobel prize. But, I've made a few contributions with the help of notes. Even more importantly, keeping a journal (and this book gives possibly the best advice I've seen on how to keep a journal) enriches my life by allowing me to capture the new joke my or the fun adventure of a camping trip with my son.
As I stumble through literally rooms full of books in my home, if there were a fire, the books I would grab first would be the ones I wrote and scribbled over the past 20-plus years.
No! I cannot think like Leonardo Di Vinci. I don't want to. I also don't want to think like you or anyone else. But I do want to think like Leonardo in that I use some of the same tools that he and many others with excellent thinking and vision have used (for more tools you can see my book "Anytime...for as Long as You Want"). Even if I can't think with the brilliance of Leonardo, I can use the same tools to improve my own thinking.
The test to learn if this book is not for you:
If the idea of carrying a notebook with you to the next camping trip, to the grocery store, to the library, and to your mother-in-law's house sounds just too weird and nerdy to you, then this book will not be of much use to you. There are several other books about Leonardo that do a better job telling the story of the life of this great man; if you want to know more about Leonardo, read one of those instead.
--Charles Runels, MD
Author of "Anytime...for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, and Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation (A 15-Day Course for Men to Improve Life and Sex)"
Top reviews from other countries
The contents and order selection is good. It's laid out well too.
The suggested exercises are good in principle, but fall short of potential. Thinking like and being like are clearly worlds apart.
What let's it down is the author's style, which I find far too effusive and somewhat repetitive.
Just read the first 15 pages. The 7 principles already blew my mind in terms of both appreciating the genius of Da Vinci and giving my best attempt to integrate and apply them into my daily life!













