Hello, creative soul,
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was the ultimate Renaissance man.
A polymath whose genius and creativity bridged art, science, and engineering.
In How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Michael J. Gelb distilled seven principles from Leonardo’s copious notebooks.
They provide a useful creative philosophy for anyone whose job depends on seeing things differently, thinking clearly, and generating better ideas.
Here’s what the creatively curious can still learn from him.
1. Curiosità (Curiosity)
Leonardo’s curiosity was obsessive. He pursued every interest, scratched every itch.
His notebooks were full of lists of things he wanted to investigate, from the movement of water to the structure of the human body. He never stopped learning, and there wasn’t anything that didn’t interest him.
The lesson?
Curiosity is critical to the creative process. Original ideas come from asking better questions and truly understanding a problem. Don’t confuse quick answers with real understanding.
2. Dimostrazione (Test Things Yourself)
Leonardo had little patience for received wisdom. He believed that if you couldn’t prove it with your own experiment, it wasn’t worth knowing.
Famously, he would dissect dead bodies to see if the heart truly worked the way the texts of the time said it did (spoiler alert: it didn’t).
The lesson?
Never take anything at face value. Try different things. Make prototypes. Run experiments. Learn from what actually happens as opposed to the ‘correct’ way of doing things. The greatest creative breakthroughs come from challenging the status quo.
3. Sensazione (Sharpen Your Senses)
Leonardo trained himself to notice more. He was incredibly mindful, studying expressions, movement, texture, light, and proportion. By paying closer attention to things, he could spot what others had overlooked.
The lesson?
Creativity begins with attention. It’s about noticing details others miss. By gathering richer data from your environment, you give yourself better inputs. Which ultimately leads to better output.
4. Sfumato (Get Comfortable With Uncertainty)
In painting, ‘sfumato’ is the soft blurring of edges. In thought, it means resisting the urge to make everything neat and binary. Leonardo understood that many important problems do not come with tidy answers. The world is full of paradoxes.
The lesson?
In creative work, ambiguity is part of the process. The strongest ideas usually begin as something partial, unclear, or contradictory. The ability to stay with that discomfort, rather than rushing to premature certainty, is a real advantage.
5. Arte/Scienza (Combine Logic With Imagination)
Leonardo moved seamlessly between art and engineering, analysis and intuition. He saw creativity and science as partners, not separate and unbridgeable entities.
The lesson?
The best creative thinking often happens at the intersection of disciplines. The broader your range, the more surprising your ideas can become.
6. Corporalita (Respect The Body As Part Of The Process)
Leonardo was famously strong and in good shape. Fitness was important to him because he understood that the mind does not operate separately from the body.
The lesson?
Unfortunately, most modern work happens sitting at desks with eyes glued to screens. But energy, sleep, and movement all shape the quality of your thinking.
Maintaining creative performance requires talent and health in body and mind.
7. Connessione (Seeing The Link Between Things)
Leonardo saw patterns and connections everywhere. He noticed that the way water swirls in a bowl is the same as the way air moves over a wing and the way blood flows through a valve.
Ultimately, he recognised that everything is connected.
The lesson?
The ability to connect seemingly unrelated things is at the heart of creativity. The best ideas come from joining dots others keep separate: a concept from biology applied to business, a lesson from architecture used in branding, a pattern in nature borrowed for design.
The takeaway?
Leonardo’s seven principles still matter because they remind you that creativity is not just about talent.
It’s about how you see, how you question, how you test, and how you connect the dots.
How you think ultimately shapes the quality of your ideas.
Stay curious,
Chris & the 42courses team x
