The Seven Da Vinci Principles
Cultivate everyday genius using seven habits distilled from Leonardo's notebooks
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 90%
Gelb reverse-engineered Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks into seven Italian-named principles anyone can practice. Curiosita is insatiable, childlike questioning. Dimostrazione is testing knowledge through direct experience rather than accepting authority. Sensazione is disciplined refinement of the five senses. Sfumato is the willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and the unknown. Arte/Scienza is the integration of analytical (convergent) and imaginative (divergent) thinking — what Gelb calls synvergent thinking. Corporalita is the cultivation of physical health, poise and grace as a foundation for the mind. Connessione is systems thinking — recognising that everything connects to everything else. Together they form a repeatable regimen: question openly, then scrutinise critically, perceive vividly, tolerate uncertainty, blend logic with imagination, keep the body balanced, and see the whole web of relationships. Practiced over time, small daily shifts compound into a markedly more creative life.
Origin
Michael Gelb spent 1994–1998 immersed in Leonardo's life — visiting his birthplace, studying original notebooks, interviewing Da Vinci scholars — until the seven principles emerged, partly from his dreams. He published them in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci (1998).
Core principles
- 01Genius is largely developed, not just inherited — the potential is a birthright.
- 02Open, playful questioning and hard, skeptical scrutiny are both required, in rhythm.
- 03The senses are the gateway to the mind; sharpen them deliberately.
- 04Comfort with ambiguity and paradox is the mark of a creative mind.
- 05Art and science, logic and imagination, are the same quest for truth.
- 06Body and mind are one system; poise and health feed thinking.
How to run it
- 1
Curiosita — insatiable curiosity
Cultivate a childlike, focused, passionate desire to know. Keep asking the next question rather than accepting the first answer.
Pro tip You can reach the essence of what anyone knows in four or five 'why' questions.
- 2
Dimostrazione — test through experience
Demonstrate things through your own experience. Don't accept a claim just because an authority said it or it's written in a book.
Pro tip Pair open questioning with tough skepticism — be naive and playful first, critical second.
Watch out Don't collapse into cynicism; a cynic is a brokenhearted idealist, not a rigorous thinker.
- 3
Sensazione — sharpen the senses
Leonardo called the five senses the ministers of the soul and trained them like an athlete. Deliberately refine sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
Pro tip Give a walk a single sensory theme — 'today I notice shades of green' or 'today I notice bird song'.
- 4
Sfumato — embrace ambiguity
Named for the hazy quality of Leonardo's paintings, Sfumato is the ability to hold uncertainty, paradox and the unknown without anxiety.
Pro tip In uncertain times, keep your emotional intelligence, your higher purpose, and your sense of humour — the 'haha' and 'aha' are first cousins.
- 5
Arte/Scienza — integrate art and science
Blend convergent (analytical, focusing) and divergent (associative, imaginative) thinking. Gelb calls this synvergent thinking.
Pro tip Learn mind mapping the old-fashioned way first — colored pens and big paper — to activate more of your brain before moving to software.
- 6
Corporalita — balance body and mind
Leonardo was renowned for strength, fencing, riding and grace. Preserve your own health, eat fresh food, exercise moderately, and move with poise.
Pro tip Grace is having the right amount of energy in the right place at the right time — don't sacrifice form chasing a number in the gym.
Watch out Torturing yourself with heavy loads while losing poise does more harm than good.
- 7
Connessione — see how everything connects
Think in systems. Ask how your purpose, values, goals and daily actions fit together, and trace unintended consequences before acting.
Pro tip Put your purpose, values and goals into a single mind map on your desk and keep redoing it to stay aligned.
In the wild
Williamson describes doing intense questioning several times a week for nearly seven years — including a three-and-a-half-hour drive to and from a boxing event spent asking his musician friend to explain everything from syncopation onward. He frames curiosity as being pulled forward by a vacuum rather than pushing himself, and says it fires the imagination and raises energy.
→ A sustained habit that, in his account, keeps his imagination and energy high and directly fuels his interviewing.
Gelb runs comparative wine tastings for business clients. People who claim to know nothing about wine, once past their awkwardness, produce vivid descriptions ('biting into a really ripe plum while leaning back on a haystack on a hot day'). Because the rule is 'no wrong answers', participants relax, notice sensory nuance, and end up connecting with each other's poetic consciousness.
→ Sharper perception plus deeper human connection among colleagues.
Common mistakes
Trying to be open and critical at the same time
Curiosita and Dimostrazione work in rhythm, not simultaneously — like trying to creatively write while proofreading, you can't do both at once. Periodize: question openly, then scrutinise.
Treating the principles as slogans, not practices
Each principle has concrete disciplines and exercises. 'Be curious' as a mantra changes nothing; the themed walks, tastings, mind maps and question drills are what produce the shift.
Is it for you?
Best for
Curious adults and professionals who want a lifelong, practicable operating system for creative and whole-brained thinking.
Not ideal for
Someone seeking a quick, single-session productivity hack with an immediate measurable output.
From the transcript
“that's the fifth principle for thinking like Leonardo is artenza the integration of Art and Science”
“everything connects to everything else Leonardo wrote that in his notebook”
“the five senses are the Ministers of the Soul he disciplined his senses he trained his senses like an Olympic Athlete”
From the episode
How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci - Michael Gelb - #876
Michael Gelb