Leonardo DaVinci and H.B. Reese - A Recipe for Genius

art genius - leonardo da vinci's house at Château du Clos Lucé

What do Leonardo Da Vinci and H.B. Reese, inventor of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, have in common?
They both took existing objects, technologies and ideas and used them in new ways.
Original. Genius.
I went to Amboise, France some years ago and visited Clos Lucé where Leonardo Da Vinci passed away. I was so moved by the experience, I took my wife back there a few years later to show her the place.
The entire garden and basement of the house are dedicated to his inventions, including models and drawings. There is one idea after the next, all decades or centuries before their time. Everything was forward thinking. Cars, airplanes, helicopters. Steam boats.
What struck me that day at DaVinci’s house though, over and above his genius foresight, was the means by which he proposed to create many of his machines. He mostly used technology and processes which already existed at the time.
He made diagrams of pulleys and wheels with belts to generate leverage for movement in his car. In his pursuit of human flight, he designed wings modeled after birds. And he proposed using manpower to propel his precursor to the military tank.|
All of these foundational elements of his ideas already existed. DaVinci gave them new purpose.
The genius was in his vision. His application of the ideas. Not necessarily the execution.

Enter the peanut butter cup.

If you’re old enough to remember the 1970’s, you may remember the TV commercials which introduced the world to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. One person is walking with a chocolate bar, while another is going the opposite direction holding an open jar of peanut butter. One inevitably trips over something and the chocolate bar lands in the peanut butter.
After a furious exchange, for some inexplicable reason they each decide to take a bite. Delicious!
Today peanut butter cups are at almost every checkout counter of every market. Millions of people eat them every day. And love them.
Peanut butter and chocolate both existed. H.B. Reese had to the idea put them together.
How can I compare the impact of peanut butter cups to the precursor of airplanes and cars?
Exactly my point.
The idea of repurposing what already exists affects us at every level in every facet of our lives…from simple pleasures, to philosophy, to art and technology.
No matter how revolutionary an idea is or not, every breakthrough in some way is built upon ideas that came before. Who invented the wheel that DaVinci used as a pulley to mechanize his machines? Who was the first person to crush peanuts into a saucy paste?
What about other simple inventions like the paper plate? The paper clip?Or more complex breakthroughs…the personal computer. Satellites. Smartphones.
Or in art. Warhol. Van Gogh.
Music. Frank Ocean. The Beatles.
There is a difference between simply polishing and rehashing what came before, and a truly new idea that lasts over time.
We hear it. We feel it. We know it. But what is it?

I think about this stuff a lot.

It’s HOW they are put together, and WHO put them together.
It’s the process of ingesting something, being affected by it, and then responding to it. By injecting ourselves into the process, it alters the output.
DaVinci thought about the future. He thought about why things were the way they were and where they might be going. It was part of his art. How could he make a great painting which accurately reflected his subjects in the world if he didn’t understand the context of his own life?
I read once that DaVinci expressed regret before he passed away that he didn’t spend more time painting. He felt like he wasted his gift spending too much time on philosophy and inventions. Even if he wasn’t fully conscious of it at the time, I get it. He couldn’t have put that kind of soul into his paintings without all of the thinking.
I don’t know about H.B. Reese’s motivation. I do know he was a candy maker before he invented the peanut butter cup. He had a workshop in his basement where he experimented with new combinations of candies. His biography reads like a poor Willie Wonka. He had the passion. He was an inventor. And he had sixteen children to feed (yes, he had sixteen children!).
As an artist, I know when I ingest an idea...allow it to affect me, and mix it with my own personal subconscious mind...my unique experience on this planet, it comes out different.
It doesn’t guarantee greatness or that it’ll resonate, but it does guarantee that its fresh.
That’s the magic sauce. Our personal filter. Our interpretation.
We are all originals. No two minds or bodies are the same. Even identical twins have differences.
No one has our particular life experience. Our particular perspective. There is no exact equivalent to any one person on this planet. So as soon as we bring a unique combination of ideas together, and insert something of ourselves into it, it’s going to be new. Original. It can’t miss.
Sometimes ideas are so far ahead of their time they make people uncomfortable and don’t get traction. Most of DaVinci’s inventions never saw the light of day until hundreds of years later when technology caught up to him.
H.B. Reese had multiple setbacks and years inventing candy before the peanut butter cup.
I bet right now you can think of multiple success stories you’ve heard where peoples' ideas were continually mocked or rejected…until one day, a door opened.
The best ideas…the ones that really change the world on some level, are not always the money makers. At least at first. But we still need them. Without new ideas, we can’t move forward. Our civilization won’t make it.It’s that important.

New problems require new solutions.

We have to keep creating. We have to keep pushing limits. We have to try to see things from different perspectives. We have to continually challenge our own beliefs, accepted ideas and the functionality of things.
The great news is, when we insert an element of ourselves into the process, it feels good.
It’s not easy. It can be uncomfortable. And it certainly isn’t the safe route.
But when did playing it safe get us anywhere? It’s bold leaders who inspire us. It’s bold products, stories and artistic endeavors that excite us and make us feel alive.
Have you ever had a decision to make, chosen the safe route and felt electrified by life afterward?
I haven’t.
I think it’s the Universe’s way of telling us to go there.