Idea notebooks
blog | philmckinney | January 30, 2009 at 4:50 pmA few weeks back, I went to the San Jose Tech Museum to check out a visiting exhibit on Leonardo De Vinci. One part the exhibit that really hit home was his passion for documenting his ideas and insights in an extensive set of notebooks.
Leonard filled dozens on notebooks, large and small with notes and drawings that record a half-century of projects, and experiments in the areas of art, technology, and science. Leonardo’s notebooks are rarely neat and organized. Seldom do they offer a coherent discussion of a single topic over sequential pages.
Less than half of Leonardo’s notebooks has survived. The ones that did survive offer incredible insight into his areas of interest and ability to document the smallest details of his experiments and ideas.
Keeping a notebook to collect your ideas is key to growing your ability innovate. Notebooks give you a way to look back and see your progress along with building your own personal idea pipeline.
In my case, my collection of notebooks (+20 years of ideas) is one of my most valuable possessions.
Are you keeping a notebook?
Tags: ideas, leonardo, notebooks
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Shouldn’t our notebooks today be digital?
I keep a notebook and have done so my entire career. It has come in handy many times not only for jogging the memory but also proving prior art in patent submissions.
I was once at my daughters elementary school as part of career day. Known as Mr Gadget to the kids they surprised that when asked what my most important tool was I held up my notebook and pencil.
Still looking for a suitable electronic equivalent but so far nothing beats paper and pencil.
If you work in research keep a notebook and use it.
Yeah, I have a notebook in which I keep all my ideas… unfortunately, it’s called the Internet. This is useful advice but I’m torn about doing it because I don’t draw anywhere near as well as Da Vinci. Hundreds of years from now, people may just think they’re the mad ramblings of a mental patient.
I have kept notebooks at work, everytime I change role the notebook has to stay beind! All my employers have been very protective of their IP and don’t like you to take anything with you when you go.
Yea, I saw the da vinci codexs (or is that codecs) once also, very interesting indeed.. I loved the idea that the moon is covered in water and is that color as a result of reflected sun rays…. or the other one that claims that fossils are found in mountain areas because of rivers running in the earth’s crust.
My notebook itself is my notebook and google desktop.. and is just as crazy as leo’s ramblings.
I’ve been using OneNote and a Tablet PC since I got my TC1000; I have 5 years of notes, research, interviews, ideas, things i liked and stuff I should have done months ago. Compared to the paper notebooks I used to bookmark with yellow stickies for different projects, note types and relevance, it’s wonderful. I couldn’t be without a tablet, even if I only take handwritten notes once a month – I take it everywhere because I can use it everywhere. Er, didn’t mean to go all tablet-tastic, but they are the modern digital codex. I even doodle in mine…
Let me make up for it with my favourite photo from the San Jose Leonardo exhibition