Leonardo, Lincoln and the Power of Memory


Imagine if we remembered everything we read or heard. Or just 20 percent more of it. We’d all be geniuses. That is, of course, if we’re disciplined about our reading and listening habits in the first place.

Leonardo da Vinci knew that memory was central to genius. His prolific memory was amplified by a profound curiosity, too, as well as a belief in systems thinking. After all, how else does one rank polymathically among history’s greatest painters, sculptors, inventors, engineers, architects, writers and more?

Not only did Leonardo want to learn and experience everything, he wanted to retain that knowledge, too. For him, memory was a developable tool fueling an enormous intellectual and creative appetite.

Doris Kearns Goodwin reminds us in her book “Leadership in Turbulent Times” (2018) that Lincoln understood the enormous power and value of memory, too. Just as Joe DiMaggio hated it when baseball fans said he made the game look easy, Lincoln bridled when friends treated his prodigious memory as a gift or innate quality that came to him naturally.

According to Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln said that “I am slow to learn … and slow to forget what I have learned.” That’s because he worked hard at developing memory, seeing it akin to a muscle needing exercise. Kearns Goodwin describes “the arduous process by which he engraved things into his memory” using the words of Lincoln’s stepmother. “When he came upon a passage that struck him, he would write it down on boards and keep it there until he did get paper,” Lincoln’s stepmom said, “and then he would rewrite it.” The use of writing, repetition, mnemonic devices and color associations are four of many proven memory-development techniques.

Memory is an essential component of learning and teaching, which themselves are inextricably bound to leadership excellence. It’s like most everything we need to do to develop ourselves as leaders, however. It’s hard work.
Image courtesy of Psychology Today.