It is difficult to find another such person among the workers of science and art, who was the great Italian Leonardo da Vinci. His whole life is an example of how a real genius should behave so as not to waste his talent on trifles. After all, you must admit that many talented people, having achieved some significant results, prefer to rest on their laurels, instead of continuing to self-actualize, benefiting others and enjoying their work.
Leonardo lived for 67 years, having tried about a dozen professions in his life. And, no matter what he undertook, he always achieved results in that craft, some of which have not been surpassed so far. His life is the most accurate proof that a genius is a genius in everything, while dullness - it manifests itself in everyone in its own way. Not wanting to waste precious time, Leonardo slept for 15-20 minutes every 4 hours. That is, it turns out about two hours per day. Apparently, he realized that maximum brain activity (and, as a result, creativity) is most effective in the first few hours after waking up, and he used this discovery to the fullest.
However, the genius did not pay attention to many social issues. Well, it is understandable - why be distracted by some state or materialistic things, when an exciting job awaits you in the workshop and every second of your life is worth its weight in gold. Collecting many orders and receiving advances, he did not always finish the work, so he changed his place of residence more than once, thus running away from angry creditors or bailiffs. On the other hand, even unfinished things, to which the great master put his hand in one form or another, found their application.
Leonardo's inventions were several centuries ahead of his time. Most of the modern technical means were described by him, for example, a helicopter, a parachute, a car, a bicycle - these are only the most famous concepts developed by him. Obviously, for that time they remained, at best, ideas or unfinished layouts, but the genius did not care. The main thing is to give birth to an idea, and others can do the implementation.
Leonardo was equally adept at using both hands - the rarest of our species. This undoubtedly left an imprint on his approach to solving certain problems. While doing analysis, he often looked at the same phenomenon from different angles (up to the use of mutually exclusive methods), thereby forming the most complete picture of the true causes of a particular phenomenon. And such a duality of the master's nature manifested itself in almost everything; sometimes it came to very funny episodes.
For example, being a staunch vegetarian who no longer wished to cause the death of animals for food, he nevertheless created several dozen meat dishes, and in general, for more than 10 years he was the leader of court feasts in Milan. His reluctance to kill animals was perfectly combined with the inventions of war machines and mechanisms designed to kill people on the battlefield. The wheel lock invented by him (and introduced into production) made it possible to almost double the rate of fire of muskets, which, as you might guess, contributed more to the death of people than to their long and happy life.
Leonardo devoted a lot of time to the study of man in all its manifestations - from anatomy to sociology. His anatomical atlases were still relevant for almost three hundred years from the moment they were depicted. Leonardo's works dealt with almost all areas of human activity - from projects of cities with water supply and sewerage systems to philosophical essays in which he discussed the role of creativity in the life and culture of mankind. His "official" diaries alone are more than seven thousand pages long; they are still being studied, since the author often resorted to encryption of his messages and allegories.
Leonardo did not ignore such a part of human life as occultism. He left behind many prophecies and predictions. However, most likely, in this way the genius simply “rested with his soul”, or made fun of future generations, forcing them to look for a secret meaning where it actually does not exist. On the other hand, during Leonardo's lifetime, he denounced various mediums, astrologers, occultists, palmists and other pseudoscientists in every possible way. He even published a small collection of works in which he debunked their pseudoscience, showing the most elementary discrepancies in it. He did not like genius and clerics, although he did not bring matters to open clashes.
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In his works of art, in particular, paintings, the master always left the viewer the opportunity to think out the plot himself. In addition, some of his works contained such explicit ambiguous elements that disputes about the meaning of certain fragments of his work are still ongoing. The painting "The Last Supper", made in the dining room of the Milan monastery, upon deep analysis turns out to be a whole cluster of mathematical and philosophical puzzles. And his two almost identical paintings "Madonna of the Rocks", according to many critics, are a secret message encrypted through discrepancies in the writing of individual fragments. Leonardo painted his most famous creation, La Gioconda, for over 16 years and finished it shortly before his death. Many secrets and mysteries are associated with the picture: fromwho was (or was) the model for the painting before the painting's true purpose. It is believed that whoever solves the mystical riddle of the Mona Lisa will be able to understand all the secret plans set forth in the encrypted notes of the great master …
Leonardo spent the last years of his life bedridden. But this did not affect his ability to work in any way. Until his last breath, he remained himself: surrounded by followers and students, he came up with new projects and ideas. The cultural heritage that remained after him, in the form of diaries and random entries, was so huge that his student, Francesco Melzi, spent almost fifty years to publish only a part of the great teacher's works on painting.