How Curiosity Leads To More Creativity

Leonardo Da Vinci, you know, that guy that did the Mona Lisa, well he was more than a painter. He was an engineer, chef, writer, artist, inventor, humorist, musician, painter, architect, political advisor, designer, botanist, and civil planner. He also journaled like a madman. In each of these journals, endless musings and designs range from bridge and armor design to wondering what psi a pig's lungs can be inflated to before they burst. Oh, and many drawings. Not only is he one of the most influential artists ever, but he also was the first non-medical professional to dissect a cadaver. Gross? Maybe but he was curious.

That level of curiosity led him to understand the world around us in a more profound way and make art and inventions that made the world a much better place. Science and art often aren't spoken in the same sentence, but maybe they should be.

Science is by definition:

The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the physical and natural world's structure and behavior through observation and experiment.

Art or creativity is just that, except it's interpretation, not experiment.

When artists start to get curious, the thread they follow leads them down a new untrodden path. They start asking questions and prod into the physical and natural world, leading to tons and tons of ideas.

To be creative means to live wholly in the world. To understand or at least attempt to understand why things are the way they are. This kind of curiosity led Da Vinci to dissect a human and study the muscles and how they operate. In turn, this led to him having such detail in many of his paintings that no other artist at the time had.

Creativity is a skill, and curiosity is the catalyst to develop that skill further. There are no natural-born creatives, only practicing curious question asking paintbrush and pen bearing humans.

Here are some questions we can use to help us on our curious journey:

What assumptions do I have about X?

Why do I believe what I believe about X?

Is this common wisdom accurate or relevant still?

Just ask "Why?" and also "Why Not?"

Do you not see how many and how varied are the actions which are performed by men alone? Do you not see how many different kinds of animals there are, and also of trees and plants and flowers? What variety of hilly and level places, of springs, rivers, cities, public and private buildings; of instruments fitted for man's use; of diverse costumes, ornaments, and arts? - Da Vinci

Also he wrote backwards. OK BYE!