—by Raymond Brimble

The concluding chapter of Walter Isaacson’s seminal biography of Leonardo da Vinci ends with a discussion of several lessons which can be learned from his life. It strikes me how current the lessons seem, like something a Silicon Valley billionaire would have come up with (and indeed, Isaacson also wrote a book on Steve Jobs with similar lessons to be learned). Wisdom from geniuses is always a good thing, but I cannot help but wonder if this list would have gone over so well in the 1950’s, which some consider our country’s “golden age’ (when America was “great”). Probably not.

Leonardo’s list feels right at home in the America of 2019, even though he passed away almost 500 years ago.  He lived and worked in a time and place of great turmoil, yet it was also the time and place we hold as one of the pinnacles of humanity: the Italian renaissance. This list, which I found in the final chapter of Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci, details how to be a Renaissance man (or woman):

• Be curious, relentlessly curious

• Seek knowledge for its own sake

• Retain a childlike sense of wonder

• Observe

• Start with the details

• See things unseen

• Go down rabbit holes

• Get distracted

• Respect facts

• Procrastinate (my favorite, because it seems so un-Renaissance-man-like)

• Let the perfect be the enemy of the good

• Think visually

• Avoid silos

• Let your reach exceed your grasp

• Indulge fantasy

• Create for yourself, not just for patrons

• Collaborate

• Make lists

• Take notes, on paper

• Be open to mystery

These are the wisdoms of a man who lived in a world of flux. Perhaps this is the reason they seem so familiar, as we are living in similar times. We are drinking from the fire hose, or perhaps are headed over a the same waterfall.

Da Vinci’s wisdoms are uniquely suited, not just for survival, but also extreme accomplishment. All we must do is learn to “see” what is connected to what, and how it works. He made sense of it by understanding connectivity. All things are related. Everything flows together.

Da Vinci gives us this bit of renaissance wisdom: “No instant is self-contained, just as no drop in a flowing river is self-contained. Each moment incorporates what came right before and what is coming right after” (Isaacson, pg. 518).