The observation techniques, mirror writing methods, and visual thinking systems of history's greatest polymath
Don't look AT things, look INTO them. Leonardo spent hours watching water flow, smoke rise, light pass through leaves.
Pick an everyday object. Observe it for 10 minutes. Notice shadows, textures, how light hits it. Draw what you SEE, not what you THINK it looks like.
Most people see symbols, not reality. A "tree" is a concept. See the actual bark texture, the specific curve of branches, the way leaves cluster.
Leonardo listed 7 things to observe in everything: movement, weight, force, color, texture, position, dimension.
Choose any object. Systematically answer all 7: How does it move? How heavy? What forces act on it? What colors (precisely)? Texture? Where positioned? Exact dimensions?
This framework forces complete observation. You can't fake answering all seven. Try it with a cup, a chair, a person's face.
Leonardo constantly compared: "How is a bird's wing like a fish's fin? How is water flow like air flow?"
Take two seemingly unrelated things. Find 10 ways they're similar. Then find 10 ways they're different. Forces pattern recognition.
Analogies aren't poetry—they're how you discover hidden principles. Blood circulation = river system. It's literally true.
Leonardo never stopped at one "why." Each answer triggered more questions. Why is the sky blue? Why is water reflective? Why do birds fly in formation?
Ask "why" about something mundane. Answer it. Ask "why" about that answer. Keep going 10 layers deep. You'll hit fascinating territory.
First-level answers are usually wrong or incomplete. Real understanding lives 5-10 questions deep.
Write right-to-left, backward. Forces deliberate thinking. Also: privacy, lefty-friendly.
Try writing backward for important notes. It slows you down, makes you think about each word. Acts as encryption too.
Visual thinking captures spatial relationships words can't. A sketch of gear teeth teaches more than paragraphs.
Before writing about a concept, try sketching it. Arrows, boxes, diagrams. If you can't draw it, you don't understand it.
Leonardo wrote notes connecting one page to others: "See folio 47r for water vortices." Built a web of knowledge.
In digital notes, hyperlink related ideas. In physical notes, write page numbers connecting concepts. Build your knowledge graph.
Text, diagrams, mathematical calculations, anatomical sketches—all on one page. Thinking isn't linear.
Don't separate "work" notes from "random thoughts." Breakthroughs happen at intersections. Keep it messy and connected.
Leonardo left spaces, added notes years later. Treated notebooks as living documents, not finished products.
Revisit old notes. Add updates, corrections, new connections. Your notebook is a conversation with your past self.
Leonardo drew human anatomy to understand it. Drew machines to design them. Drew water to predict flow.
Apply It:
Trying to understand a complex system? Draw it. Process? Draw it. Argument? Draw it. Visual representation reveals what words hide.
Leonardo drew objects from 6+ angles. Top, bottom, side, cross-section, exploded view, in context.
Apply It:
Stuck on a problem? Draw it from different viewpoints. Literal viewpoints, metaphorical viewpoints, customer viewpoint, competitor viewpoint.
Leonardo moved between micro and macro. Drew individual muscle fibers, then full body proportions, then crowds.
Apply It:
Practice zooming: What does this look like at 10x scale? 100x? From space? At the atomic level? Each level reveals different patterns.
Leonardo didn't just observe the world—he systematically documented it, questioned every assumption, and thought visually before thinking verbally.
His 7,200 notebook pages weren't just records—they were thinking tools. Each sketch, each question, each cross-reference built a web of understanding that made innovation inevitable.