Leonardo da Vinci

“There was harmony in proportions, Leonardo learned, and math was nature’s brushstroke.”

Key takeaway

Great quote on math being woven within nature

“Though I have no power to quote from authors as they have,” he proclaimed almost proudly, “I shall rely on a far more worthy thing—on experience.” Throughout his life, he would repeat this claim to prefer experience over received scholarship. “He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-jar,” he wrote.”

Key takeaway

Experience is the best teacher

“The empirical method used by Bacon emphasized a cycle: observations should lead to a hypothesis, which should then be tested by precise experiments, which would then be used to refine the original hypothesis.”

Key takeaway

The Scientific method was the OG flywheel

“He compared it to looking at the page of a book, which is meaningless when taken in as a whole and instead needs to be looked at word by word. Deep observation must be done in steps: “If you wish to have a sound knowledge of the forms of objects, begin with the details of them, and do not go on to the second step until you have the first well fixed in memory.”

Key takeaway

Breaking things down into smaller steps is the best way to grasp things

“Leonardo increasingly came to realize that mathematics was the key to turning observations into theories. It was the language that nature used to write her laws.”

Key takeaway

Numbers are objective

“Leonardo was summoned by the duke, they ended up having a discussion of how creativity occurs. Sometimes it requires going slowly, pausing, even procrastinating. That allows ideas to marinate, Leonardo explained. Intuition needs nurturing. “Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least,” he told the duke, “for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.”

Key takeaway

Creativity is not linear

“If he had lived another decade, he likely would have continued to refine the Mona Lisa for that much longer. Relinquishing a work, declaring it finished, froze its evolution. Leonardo did not like to do that. There was always something more to be learned, another stroke to be gleaned from nature that would make a picture closer to perfect.”

Key takeaway

Like Kanye West and Life of Pablo, art is never done