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The Daily Habits That Made Leonardo da Vinci a Genius
The “zone of genius” secrets of a brilliant mind.
I’m a huge fan of Walter Isaacson’s work. He is one of the greatest biographers of our time. His book on Leonardo da Vinci is 624 pages long. I still haven’t finished my copy of the book yet. Fascinating stuff. I’ve been curious about the habits of great minds for years. This is what I’ve found about the learning habits of one of history’s greatest geniuses. Leonardo spent his entire life proving his genius was not a gift. He was born out of wedlock. He called himself an omo sanza lettere (an unlettered man). He had no formal education past childhood. No university degree. No wealthy patron funded his studies from the start.
His secret was not a high IQ.
It was a rigorous, self-made system for taking in the world into his mind. Leonardo did not just study things; he learned how to learn. What he had was a notebook and a habit. And those two things changed everything.
He wrote everything down. Immediately.
Leonardo kept notebooks like a second brain.
Over 7,000 pages of his notes survive. That’s what remains. Historians estimate he filled over 13,000 pages in his lifetime. He wrote about water. Birds. About the mechanics of the human jaw. How…
