Or the Unbearable Importance of Learning Things You Never Thought You’d Need
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” —Leonardo da Vinci
I’ve long admired da Vinci, the patron saint of the well-rounded genius. I like to imagine that if he were alive today, he’d be the kind of guy who could paint the Mona Lisa while simultaneously dissecting frogs, sketching helicopters, and writing scathing Yelp reviews. The quintessential Renaissance man has a lot to teach us, especially when it comes to interdisciplinary learning.
While I have no intention of carving up amphibians, I do find the idea of blending different fields into my work quite valid. After all da Vinci didn’t just slap some paint on a canvas. He mindfully mixed in his studies of biology, geometry, and whatever other intellectual pursuits he had at the time. The result is a masterpiece, of course, because his works drew from so many different and seemingly disparate elements.
So, why shouldn’t I do the same with my prose, fiction, and poetry? True genius emerges from finding connections between things that, on the surface, seem as unrelated as a tuxedo and flip-flops. But this is where the real magic happens. New ideas don’t just pop out of thin air; they’re amalgamations of other ideas, stitched together and zapped into life like Frankenstein’s Monster.
Theoretically, diversifying your knowledge base is a great idea, like having a liberal arts degree minus the crippling student debt. Sure, the intention behind such degrees was noble: to mold students into well-rounded intellectuals with a breadth of knowledge that emulates a modern Renaissance man or woman. But, of course, what they don’t tell you in the brochures is that you don’t need to pay tuition to get that education. A library card, a good pair of eyes, and unsatiable curiosity will do just fine. If you’re disciplined enough to self-study, you can pursue your own liberal education for just about free.
Maybe that’s why I’ve always been such a proponent of homeschooling. It’s the ultimate DIY education. As someone who never quite excelled at sitting in a classroom and listening to someone drone on about things I could just as easily Google, I’ve developed a healthy disdain for traditional learning environments. Independent learning isn’t just a preference for me; it’s a necessity. Some people may thrive in a structured classroom setting, absorbing knowledge like sponges. But I’m more of a sieve, losing half of what I was supposed to learn somewhere between the whiteboard and my notebook.
So, let’s take a page out of da Vinci’s book, hopefully without the cryptic backward writing, and embrace the art of interdisciplinary learning. Cramming more facts into your brain isn’t the solution. Instead, we should be connecting the dots between things that seem like they belong in different universes. In the end, everything does connect to everything else. It doesn’t matter whether you’re dissecting frogs, painting masterpieces, or just trying to figure out how to make your latest essay sound less like a rant and more like a revelation.
~ Amelia Desertsong
