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The most famous preparatory drawing is a sheet that lays out Leonardo’s initial conception for the entire picture (fig. 16). On it he plots his perspective lines, following the methods used by Brunelleschi and Alberti. As the scene recedes to the vanishing point, the horizontal lines, which he drew with a ruler, are compressed with incredible precision, far more than necessary for a finished painting. Combined with this meticulous grid are quick, spectral sketches of twisting and scrambling humans, rearing and frenzied horses, and an ultimate bit of Leonardo fantasia: a resting camel twisting his neck to regard the scene with a wild surmise. Mathematically delineated, precise lines work in concert with frenzied motion and emotion. It is a remarkable combination of optical science and imaginative art, and it shows how he constructed his art on a scaffold of science.25
Leonardo Da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
Time pressure is external. Focus comes from inside you, where no one else can control it. Time creates distractions. Focus blocks them out. Time tells you to hurry. Focus tells time to STFU. When you’re managing time, all you can see is how long it will take. When you’re managing focus, you don’t care. Time is about others. Focus is all about you.
I have written about what I call “the gravity of past success” in chess. Each victory pulls the victor down slightly and makes it harder to put in maximum effort to improve further. Meanwhile, the loser knows that he made a mistake, that something went wrong, and he will work hard to improve for next time. The happy winner often assumes he won simply because he is great. Typically, however, the winner is just the player who made the next-to-last mistake. It takes tremendous discipline to overcome this tendency and to learn lessons from a victory.
Winter Is Coming
Garry Kasparov
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