#357: How to Be a Creative Genius Like da Vinci

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2017

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leonardo da Vinci has become the ultimate archetype of the creative genius. Besides his famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa, da Vinci had insights into anatomy and optics that would take science a few hundred years to verify. While Leonardo's genius seems like a gift from the gods, my guest today argues that it was actually the result of years of human effort and toil. Today on the show I have the pleasure of speaking with famed author Walter Isaacson about his latest biography called "Leonardo da Vinci." We begin the show talking about what has drawn Isaacson to write about innovative individuals like da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Steve Jobs, and how Isaacson has discovered that it’s at the intersection of science and the humanities that all great innovations are made. We then dig into the life of da Vinci and lessons we can take away from him. Walter tells us about da Vinci’s famous notebooks and what he kept in them, and makes the case that all of us should be carrying around a little notebook for ideas too. We then dig into the the myth of the solitary genius and how Leonardo collaborated all throughout his life on some of his greatest works. We then discuss one of the great paradoxes of da Vinci's life: that he could be both intensely focused and hugely flighty, and how both sides of this character were key to his genius. We end our conversation talking about how we can develop the same kind of power of intense concentration that da Vinci wielded, even in our distracted, digital world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:13.9	Buret McK here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast, Leonardo
0:18.8	Da Vinci, has become the ultimate archetype of the creative genius.
0:22.2	Besides his famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci had insights into anatomy
0:25.9	and objects that would take science a few hundred years to verify.
0:29.1	And while Leonardo's genius seems like a gift from the gods, my guest today argues
0:33.0	that it was actually a result of years of human effort and toil.
0:36.2	Today on the show, I had the pleasure of speaking with famed author Walter Isaacson,
0:39.4	but it's late-inspired to be on Leonardo Da Vinci.
0:41.4	We begin the show talking about what has drawn Isaacson to write about innovative individuals
0:45.4	like Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Steve Jobs, and how Isaacson has discovered through
0:49.4	his writing that it's the intersection of science and humanities that all great innovations
0:53.4	are made.
0:54.4	We then dig into the life of Da Vinci, unless we could take away from him while the tells us about Da Vinci's
0:57.8	famous notebooks, what he kept in them, and makes the case that all of us should be carrying
1:01.7	around little notebooks for ideas too.
1:03.4	We then dig into the myth of the solitary genius in how Leonardo collaborated all throughout
1:07.2	his life on some of his greatest works.
1:08.8	We then discuss one of the great paradoxes of Da Vinci's life that he can be both intensely
1:12.5	focused and hugely flighty and how both sides of this character were key in his genius.
1:17.5	We end our conversation talking about how we can develop the same kind of power of intense
1:21.1	concentration and observation that Da Vinci wielded, even our distracted digital world.
	...

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