"When you toss a stone into a still pond, the water ripples out in a series of widening circles. Conjure up that image in your mind's eye; ask yourself how one ripple affects another, and where the energy of the ripples goes, and you will be thinking like the maestro. The ever-expanding circle is a lovely metaphor for the principle of Connessione..."
"One secret of Leonardo's unparalleled creativity is his lifelong practice of combining and connecting disparate elements to form new patterns."
"Many of his inventions and designs arose from the playful, imaginary combinations he made of different natural forms. Although the seriousness and intensity that Leonardo brought to his studies cannot be overemphasized, he was, as his love of jokes, riddles, and boxed dragons demonstrates, extremely playful. As Freud commented, 'Indeed, the great Leonardo remained like a child for the whole of his life...Even as an adult he continued to play and that was another reason he often appeared uncanny and incomprehensible to his contemporaries.' Leonardo's seriousness drove him to penetrate the essence of things, and his playfulness allowed him to make unprecedented, original connections."
A couple of things stand out for me in the chapter of "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci" by Michael J. Gelb. The first is his understanding of the interconnectedness of everything around us. This is a theme that is very practically developed in the surprising book and video series called "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson. By tracing the six inventions that he asserts made the modern world, Johnson looks at, for instance, how the invention of something like ice affected how we have inhabited the planet. I know that ice itself isn't a human invention but there was a man who had a vision for how ice, cut out of the frozen lake and shipped to hot climates would change life for those living there; he was considered to be a crazy idiot. Nevertheless, he held onto this strange dream and, when it succeeded, he not only became incredibly wealthy but all of a sudden also became a 'genius.' Funny how perceptions change.
While that seems a foreign concept for us living in modern times, think about how ubiquitous ice or manufactured cold is in our lives. We live in air conditioned houses, with boxes that keep food fresh by keeping it cold and we drink cold beverages to make ourselves more comfortable. Someone had to think of marketing the ice and all the other inventions flowed from that.
Here's what Steven Johnson says about the ripple effect of invention.
"But the other reason to write this kind of history is that these innovations have set in motion a much wider array of changes in society than you might reasonably expect. Innovations usually begin life with an attempt to solve a specific problem, but once they get into circulation, they end up triggering other changes that would have been extremely difficult to predict."
"Johannes Gutenberg's printing press created a surge in demand for spectacles, as the new practice of reading made Europeans across the continent suddenly realize that they were farsighted; the market demand for spectacles encouraged a growing number of people to produce and experiment with lenses, which led to the invention of the microscope, which shortly thereafter enabled us to perceive that our bodies were made up of microscopic cells. You wouldn't think that printing technology would have anything to do with the expansion of our vision down to the cellular scale, just as you wouldn't have thought that the evolution of pollen would alter the design of a hummingbird's wing. But that is the way change happens."
This blog is primarily about creativity and growing in our ability to apply creative principles to our lives and the world around us. I encourage you to read "How We Got to Here" and watch the PBS series that is currently available on Netflix. Seeing how others have allowed the ripple to flow through them to create new things on the foundation of things that have gone before will, if you're like me, inspire you to copy them. This is a book that I go through pretty regularly because it seems that every time I read it, I find something new to inspire me.
There's another thought that strikes me as I read this chapter on Connessione. The other day, I heard a friend of mind use a phrase in a particular way that I know they picked up from me. It struck me that I'd picked up this way of saying this phrase from a friend that I'd known well about 10 years ago and I'm sure they picked it up from someone else. The ripple flows through our relationships as well as our theories. By being a creative influence on those around me, like I've been influenced by others before me, we can sustain the energy for the hunger for creativity to ripple on for many generations and makes me want to surround myself by creative people.
My hope as we head into a new year is to be a positive, energetic, creative influence on those I interact with, whether I know them or not. I was deeply touched by this Thai commercial that illustrates some of these truths.
Perhaps what we need in the coming year is to expand our understanding of how our creativity can enhance our relationships and by doing this, to make our world better. "As you've done to the least of these, my brothers, you've done to me." ~Jesus
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