Sometimes the simplest questions are the most complex. How does a bird fly? Why is the sky blue? These are the kinds of questions that drove Leonardo Da Vinci to his innovative genius and scientific study. It was insufficient for Da Vinci to hear "Because God wills it," when the answer was much more complicated and much less abstract. Learn to form probing questions about the things that interest you and test them to obtain results.



Exercise: Write down at least five questions about a subject that fascinates you, and that you'd like to know more about. Instead of doing a cursory wikipedia search of the topic and then forgetting the matter completely, select a single question from that list and sit with it for at least a week. How do mushrooms grow? What is coral? What is a soul? Research it at the library. Write about it. Draw about it. Think about it.
 When you've started to form your own opinion about a particular topic or question, when you think you're getting close to a satisfactory answer, determine what criteria would be sufficient to either accept or reject that answer. What would prove you were right? What would prove you were wrong? How can you test your idea?



Exercise: Come up with a testable theory for your probing question and set up an examination, using the scientific method. Gather some substrate and grow your own mushrooms to learn more about different methods, techniques, and varieties.
 The scientific thinker interrogates ideas until all avenues of thought have been prodded at, examined, verified, or rejected. Leave no avenue of inquiry untouched. Regular thinkers often get attached to one of the first pleasing options or answers, ignoring the more interesting or complicated questions that might be more accurate. If you want to think like Leonardo Da Vinci, leave no stone unturned in your search for truth.



Exercise: Practice mind mapping. A powerful tool that can help you combine logic and imagination in your work and life, the end result of mapping should be a web-like structure of words and ideas that are somehow related in your mind, making it easier to remember all the nooks and crannies of your thoughts, failure and success alike. Mind mapping can improve memory, reading retention, and creativity.
 A scientist embraces failed experiments in the same way that a scientist embraces successful ones: an option has been eliminated from the list of possibilities, getting you one step closer to some truth. Learn from hypotheses that turn out to be wrong. If you were absolutely sure that your new way of structuring a work day, writing a story, or rebuilding your engine would be perfect, and it turned out not to be so, celebrate! You completed an experiment and learned what won't work next time.



Exercise: Think back to a particular failure. List all the things you learned from it, what you'll be able to do more effectively as a direct result of that failure.
Ask probing questions.
Test your hypotheses with your own observations.
See your ideas all the way through to completion.
Build new concepts from a foundation of failures.
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