Bucky Group 31 - Leonardo Da Vinci

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This is part 2 of the Leonardo Da Vinci documentary screened during the Bucky Group today.
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(This discussion notes are emailed to me by WhatIDiscover. I was only there in spirit.)

Discussion:

Clara, Rachel and I feel that Leonardo da Vinci is a person of many talents. He is an artists, scientist, engineer, inventor… Bucky is like that too.
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Leonardo and Bucky are T Talents (very large ones as they know so much). I like to introduce my idea of T Talents..

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They are curious people who have deep expertise in one subject matter (the vertical leg of the T) and broad interest in one or many other subject matters (the horizontal part of the T). For example, Joo Hock is an expert in hairdressing and he also have broader interests in training, community management, events management, singing…etc.

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The T Talents idea is a shortened version of the T-shaped people idea. It is like using TinyURL.com to shorten a long web address to a short one. T-shaped people are people who are so inquisitive about the World that they are willing to try to do what you do. They have a principle skill that describes the vertical leg of the T – they might be mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into others skills, such as anthropology and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behaviour that point to a universal human need.

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Source:

Strategy by designFast Company Tim Brown of IdeoFast Company 2005 Jun

http://www.ideo.com/pdf/FastCo-StrategyByDesign(TimBrown).pdf

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I share the same view that we need T Talents in the future with Steve Mills of IBM.

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The following paragraphs are taken from his thought leadership paper.

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In the past and to a great degree, the present - the work force is dominated by two kinds of people:

1. Business generalists with broad horizontal understanding of the business issues affecting their area.
2. Hands-on implementation specialists or people with narrow but deep expertise in a specific, often technical, area.

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The future of business demands a new breed of knowledge worker: the T-shaped person who combines broad understanding of business processes (the top, horizontal part of the T) with deep practical execution in a specific functional area (the bottom, vertical part of the T). People who share the same understanding of the business process (top of the T) can team with colleagues with different I-shaped specialties bottom of the T) to cover the waterfront of a business need without losing that common vocabulary and understanding of their shared business objective.

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Source:

The future of business, Steve Mills IBM, Thought leadership paper 2007 Jun

http://www.ibm.com/services/us/cio/pdf/wp-enbusflex_raw11032-usen-00_hr.pdf

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My Notes:

Leonardo was fascinated with everything he saw and went on to work on his areas of interest until they stopped fascinating him. When he was working on something, he would be totally focused on that something.

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This means that our schools are very wrong! Our current system works on structured and rigid syllabus that will give little time, if at all, for the student to explore his fascination to the fullest until he has discovered enough and the subject ceases to fascinate him. The current system assumes that every child has the same interests and talents and starts everyone at the same time and progress to the next class at the same intervals. This is what Alvin Toffler calls "Second Wave Industrial Age Education", which is standardised education for everyone. For more about what Toffler said, read here.

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Leonardo's going around Europe seeking new patrons to sponsor his works reminds me of my time I spent as an freelance consultant. Then I was moving from Australia to Europe, Europe to Africa, then to Asia. During those heady days, I was endlessly catching up with new technologies (there is no end to newer stuff coming) and how they could be applied to varied industries like banking, government, power stations, steel mills,...etc, at the same time pressured to sell and land my services with some clients internationally, so that 'I can eat'. I was constantly having to adjust to local languages , fiscal systems, new accommodation, public safety, driving on the wrong side of the road and varied seasonal climates. Sometimes we meet easy and pleasant clients, but more often ruthless heartless ones. It was exhilerating, but over time, the different time zones, climates, and intense mental activities accumulates into fatigue! :)

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In the early years when IT started, as long as you could write a program in a computer language, you were hired. Later, you have to be highly specialised in specific languages, sometimes even specific to the operating systems and machines. However nowadays as programming got commoditised and are outsourced to offshore programming centres, clients demand broad business knowledge and technical skills, similar to the T talents that was described above.

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An example of a T talent job requirement is one of an information security specialist. Unfortunately, many people think of information security as identical to IT security, especially in Asia where the knowledge in the field is in its infancy. They would further simplify it as anti-virus software installation and firewall operations.

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As information does not reside only in computers and most of its users are humans (the weakest link), it must extend its scope beyond technology to be pervasive and embrace physical security, human procedures and processes, policies, human resource profiling, management structures, legal requirements and constraints, business needs and user awareness. Even technology involved should not be restricted to just computer and networks, as there are laser eavesdropping systems and other data recovery methods that are not centred on computers. Thus, the 'specialist' now needs to broaden his understanding in organisational behaviour, the relevant laws and most critcially the psychology of what makes people tick to cooperate with the often claimed onerous security procedures, not forgetting that most of the time, the hacker comes from within.

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Keeping a nerd hardwired to firewall commands, and who can recite all the attack signatures by heart, would not be enough to protect your information.

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Bucky Group 30b - Leonardo Da Vinci

Below is an email from Clinton, a Bucky Group member after the Leonardo DaVinci documentary screening last Saturday at Hair Affair in Singapore.

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Hi,

Many thanks for your ongoing contribution, adding much variety to the topics being discussed at the Group. Leonardo da Vinci is of particular interest to me, especially in the areas of " whole brain thinking " and "sytems thinking". I marvel at the fact that more than 500 years after his time, the world is only his realising his genius, his masterpieces and discoveries. To think with just paint brush in hand, colours, canvas or wall, some egg yolk and a lot of imagination, perserverence, the rest of the world is able to have a life-like impression of ' The Last Supper '.
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To think too that LDV was already expounding the 'whole brain thinking' concept 450 years before Dr. Roger Sperry in 1953 ( inconjuction with Prof Robert Ornstein ), was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his ground breaking work in this area. Through my own work and interest in this subject in, I am totally convinced that man's genius lies in making greater use of both the left and right brain for learning, thinking and creating, thus turning one's brain into a multiplication machine, not an adding tool.
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Man is wired to be a genius. It was Bucky who once said that " Man wasborn a genius. It is living that degeniuses him". And if I may add, using more of just one side of his brain through sheer habit, and becoming left or right brain DOMINANT! I think the genius of Bucky would probably not be fully realised for another 100-200 years.
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As for 'systems thinking', it all began with the universe itself, I would think. Everything else is a sub, sub, sub.... system. PeterSenge's " Fifth Discipline' is an excellent read on this.
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See you guys around.
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Cheers,
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Clinton

Read also Clinton's Mind Games

Bucky Group 30a - Leonardo Da Vinci

Below is an email from the previous Bucky Session about Leonardo DaVinci.

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Hi Bucky Fellows
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Leonardo da Vinci was different from conventional people. Let's explore what was different about him versus conventional people. He had the following 9 characteristics that creative people have. I feel Bucky had these characteristics too.
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Sense from: You and Creativity Don Fabun Kaiser Aluminum News 25
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Sensitivity
A propensity for greater awareness which makes a person more readily attuned to the subtleties of various sensations and impressions. Eric Fromm writes, "Creativity is the ability to see (or be aware) and to respond".
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Questioning Attitude
An inquisitiveness, probably imprinted in early home training that encourages seeking new and original answers.
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Broad Education
An approach to learning instilled from a liberal education that puts a premium on questions rather than answers and rewards curiosity rather than rote learning and conformity.
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Asymmetrical Thinking
The ability to find an original kind of order in disorder as opposed to symmetrical thinking that balances everything out in some logical way."The creative personality is unique in that during the initial stage she prefers the chaotic and disorderly and tends to reject what has already been systematized". Ralph J. Hallman
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Personal Courage
A disregard for failure derived from a concern, not for what others think, but what one thinks of oneself. "They seemed to be less afraid of what other people would say or demand or laugh at ... Perhaps more important, however, was their lack of fear of their own insides, of their own impulses, emotions, thoughts". Abraham Maslow
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Sustained Curiosity
A capacity for childlike wonder carried into adult life that generates a style of endless questioning, even of the most personally cherished ideas. Eric Fromm: "Children still have the capacity to be puzzled...But once they are through the process of education, most people lose the capacity of wondering, of being surprised. They feel that they ought to know everything, and hence that it is a sign of ignorance to be surprised or puzzled by anything".
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Time Control
Instead of being bound by time, deadlines and schedules, creative individuals use time as a resource - morning, noon and night - years, decades - whatever it takes, unbound by the clock.
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Dedication
The unswerving desire to do something, whatever it may be and whatever the obstacles to doing it.
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Willingness to work
The willingness to continue to pursue a project endlessly, in working hours and so - called free hours, over whatever time might be required. Roger Sessions said, "Inspiration, then, is the impulse which sets creation in movement; it is also the energy which keeps itgoing".
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I got the list of these characteristics from reading the design thinking article in the Design Research Quarterly 2006 Dec. It was written by Charles Owen of Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design. He quoted Don Fabun for creating the list. I amnot able to locate Kaiser Aluminum News 25 ( published in 1968 ). If there is any one who has a copy, please let me know.
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Regards :)
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WhatIDiscover
What is the meaningful connection I can make between what you are curious about and what I know?

Bucky Group 30 - Leonardo Da Vinci

I am not in this Bucky Group session yesterday, Saturday 26th July 2008. I was about 13,000 kms away but yet able to write something about it. Well, thanks to one of our regular attendees who prefers to be called WhatIDiscover, who has contributed the following email; and thanks also the technology that makes it all possible.

Hi Bucky Fellows
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Today we watch part 1 of the Leonardo da Vinci documentary by BBC.
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Thanks for lending us the video, Michael. It shows the life and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. It was cool and interesting.
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[End of Part 1]
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During the discussion, Eric asked why is it that Leonardo da Vinci is usually associated with the man in the circle logo (the Vituvian Man) ? If any one knows the answer, please let Eric know.
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[Note: The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing with accompanying notes created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487[1] as recorded in one of his journals. It depicts a nude male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man.

See Wikipedia]
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After that, Joo Hock introduced a book - "How to think like Leonardo daVinci". The book is about the Seven Principles Leonardo had lived by. As Joo Hock was introducing the book quickly, I think many of us could not remember them. So, I had borrowed the book and list the principles out below.
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Seven Leonardo da Vinci principles

1. Curiosita - An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.


2. Dimonstrazione - A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and willingness to learn from mistakes.


3. Sensazione - The continual refinement of the senses, especially sightas the means to enliven experience.


4. Sfumato – ( literally "going up in smoke" ) A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.


5. Arte / Scienza - The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. "Whole-brain" thinking.


6. Corporalita - The cultivation of grace, ambi-dexterity, fitness, and poise.


7. Connessione - A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.

Source:

How to think like Leonardo DaVinci, by Michael Gelb
Page 9, Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385323816

Regards :)


WhatIDiscover
What is the meaningful connection I can make between what you are curious about and what I know?

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My Comments:

While Googling around, I found this other text on "How NOT to think like Leonardo DaVinci". The most prominent being that,

"There is something ironic about the fact that the Mona Lisa was painted by a man with no women in his life. Leonardo da Vinci never married, and he never had any children. Most historians agree that Leonardo was gay, but that doesn't explain why he didn't have some long-term companions other than a 10 year-old boy he adopted."

It has the following advice about Leonardo's Seven Mis-Steps:

1. Don't procrastinate. Finish all projects.
2. Communicate your ideas to others using standard notation.
3. Develop some long-term relationships.
4. Study basic math even if you are an art student.
5. Do not over-engineer your inventions.
6. Avoid fads in most things but especially intellectual pursuits.
7. Don't work for the military industrial complex.

For more info, click here

What I find most amazing...

Despite being born a bastard, Leonardo grew to be one of the greatest in his time, ironically because of his lack of education and therefore could not understand the Greek or Latin which all books were written in at that time. He therefore couldn't refer to those books initially and had to rely on his endless curiosity and fresh observations of nature to know the truth.

Have you ever wondered why most prophets in history were illiterate? :)

As what Mike George in one of our post "Hunting Life's Oxymoron", puts it:

"One oxymoron that influences us all is the idea of 'academic learning'. Our academic education is called learning but its mostly memorising, which is not learning, it's memorising. It's also the memorisation of other peoples memorisations, people who are positioned as authority figures of the past. Their ideas are held in the highest esteem and passed on as 'authority'.

But real learning can only happen when the 'self' recognizes itself as its own authority in the universe of its own consciousness. Only then is real learning possible, which is learning what the self is and how the self works and how the self relates to other selves and how the self creates their world and why the self is here. This cannot be learned by a process of memorization, only from personal experience or what is sometimes called self realization. And if there is one subject in life that can never be academic it is that of the 'self'. " For the full post, read here

I also note that he was an expert salesman who could communicate his ideas through to his sponsors and wouldn't mind working for what most people would consider as 'pain-in-the-ass' bosses. Instead of complaining about them (well may be he did), he made what good he could get to test his ideas and inventions.

Our Bucky Group is composed of people from many different walks of life. Some of us have postgraduate degrees some barely making secondary school education. I think for those of us who are highly educated, it is time to throw all aside and observe all afresh. For those less educated, seeking the mathematical and analytical aspects from observations will further their awareness.

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