WikiHow had an excellent, indepth article about how to think like Leonardo da Vinci. The following list is an interpretation of that article, as well as a afterthought to What Leonardo da Vinci Taught Me About Freelancing, with a few more points thrown in.

1. Consume information. Absorb all forms: print, radio/ audio, images, TV/ movies/ video, verbal.
2. Listen to different types of music, even those you do not normally enjoy.
3. Listen to the sound of different languages.
4. Track your thoughts, whether to write in a journal, draw, or blog.
5. Assume more than one point of view, for the sake of argument, then determine which one suits you best.
6. Capture the sensations you experience, including writing about them or illustrating them. Illustration can include drawings/ paintings, diagrams, photographs, screensnaps, screencasts, video.
7. Ask questions, compare unrelated topics and see if you can’t find parallels or intersections. To accomplish this, record tidbits of information about each topic, either in list or mind map form. (Give preference to the latter, because it more closely resembles human brain thinking patterns, and can help you absorb information far more quickly than a linear list.)
8. Imagine. Imagine conversations with great minds. Imagine finding the solution to great questions.
9. Be physically active. This is the counterpoint to thinking, but being physically active is just as important as being mentally active.

No, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. The mind map snapshot above is intentionally blurred because it represents a very personal problem solving session. Okay, so what’s the point in showing the map then? Well, take a look at the mind map’s node colors first, and we’ll get back to the map in a moment. It’s easier to “see” the colors without them being obscured by text, and they are part of the key to problem solving using mind maps.

Problem Solving
At some point in your life, you’ve possibly encountered a problem, either personal or at work, that you need to think about extensively to solve. If you’re like most people faced with a difficult problem, you either try to (1) ignore it; (2) solve it in your head; or (3) make a list of “pros” and “cons” for various options. This might be sufficient to solve the problem, but there’s an option (4): mind mapping, is a much more effective way to explore your options.

By the very nature of the mind mapping process, and because of the visual elements, both your logical and creative sides are stimulated, and you might come up with solutions that you had not previously considered.

The Color Scheme
For example, in the mind map above, the central element (pinkish map node) has five main branches. Each main branch represents a problem-solving option/ solution. Each of the main branches in the mind map has sub-branches exploring pros and cons of the option.

Going with a traditional coloring scheme (at least for North America), I’ve used red to indicate a negative/ unacceptable side effect and green to represent a positive/ acceptable side effect. Pinks and purples represent various shades of “caution”, and light greens and blues represent positives that are not as significant as a dark green. Note that the main node of a solution/ option branch can take on any of the colors indicated. Just because it has sub-nodes that are dark green does not make the solution a good one because any important negatives will play a role in reducing the option’s validity.

I chose red/green color scheme because it was easiest for me to work with. The scheme you use should suit your needs. E.g., factor in red-green color blindness, if you suffer from that affliction. Or if you prefer oranges and blues, that’s fine too.

The Result
The net result is that not only have I mapped out my problem-solving options, but I have a fairly clear view of which ones are most acceptable, simply by looking at the node colors. Any main branch with lots of green and blue sub-nodes is a potential solution. However, you have to decide what color a main branch node should be, from the sum of its parts.

Now, just by looking at the (blurred) mind map up top, can you pick out which branch represents the best option for solving my problem? It’s the one on the bottom right.

Yahoo Pipes is one of the most underrated web mashup tools available. It’s power is impressive, but beyond some initial buzz, it seems a largely ignored tool. It’s still in beta and has a few quirks, but it’s truly amazing how much data mining and mashup you can do with it on RSS feeds:

1. Combine RSS feeds.
2. Reorganize information.
3. Filter and sort information by date, topic, or other criteria.
4. Aide in analyzing trends in the blogosphere.
5. Produce customized, rich media RSS feeds for further consumption by other Web 2.0 tools and services.

To get the word out about how useful custom Pipes can be, I’ve written numerous articles, most with video screencasts explaining how to create the Pipe in question. Here’s a breakdown where you can find these posts, or where they will soon be.

Search Engine Journal

Yahoo Pipes for SEO and analysis? Sure. This three part series at Search Engine Journal focuses on analyzing data about home page submissions to social media site Digg.

1. Yahoo Pipes: Analyzing Digg, Part 1: By Submitter.
2. Yahoo Pipes: Analyzing Digg, Part 2: By Category and Submitter.
3. Yahoo Pipes: Analyzing Digg, Part 3: Filter by Votes.

Tubetorial

The following posts on Tubetorial serve to show a wide variety of uses of Yahoo Pipes. Each of these tutorials mashups up Yahoo Pipes with other web tools and services.

1. Yahoo Pipes: Merging RSS Web Feeds – A very simple Pipe showing a basic atomic function, the merging and sorting of two RSS feeds.
2. Create a Random Photostream With Twitter, Yahoo Pipes and Flickr – take random text input from any source and turn the result into a sequence of images..
3. Creating a Photolog With Tumblr and Flickr – Take the last pipe one step further and create a photolog.
4. Create Your RSS Radar With Yahoo Pipes – Create a web agent (RSS Radar) to seek out bargains on the Internet and report the result back to you.
5. Tubetorial Quick Tips – Yahoo Pipes – Clone a Pipe – Why build a whole new Yahoo Pipe? Clone an existing one, then tweak to customize it.
6. Tubetorial Quick Tips – Yahoo Pipes – Concatenate Strings – Demonstrates one of the data string handling modules.
7. More RSS Radars: Video Search – Find videos tagged with a certain keyword or keyphrase across multiple video sharing sites.
8. Custom Yahoo Pipes/ Flickr Slideshows For Your Blog – Turn your photos on Flickr into a slideshow.
9. Blog Slideshows, Part 2: Turn Text Feeds Into a Photo Slideshow -Turn your random photostream from #2 above and turn it automatically into slideshow.
10. Technorati Blog Cosmos – Who’s Linking Who? – Track what blogs are linking to your blog.

Performancing

At the time of writing, I have no Yahoo Pipes posts at Performancing. However, I am working on a series covering the pMetrics blog stats tracking packge, some of which will involve Pipes for data analysis.

RSS Cases

Likewise, there are currently no example Pipes at RSS Cases. However, there are a couple of posts covering Yahoo Pipes and ways to use them.

1. Yahoo Pipes Regex Module – a precursor to the series at Search Engine Journal above.
2. Using RSS Radars to Find Domains for SEO/SEM – a dicussion of a practical use of Yahoo Pipes.

RSS Cases is to be the future home of a very advance series of “how to use Yahoo Pipes” video screencast series. It’s currently in the planning stages.