Separating the design of a product from its engineering was a recipe for dysfunction. Designers had to feel the immediate pain if something they devi… - Walter Isaacson

Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

Einstein was asked what the next war would look like. “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought,” he answered, “but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks.

This inability to ground his fantasies in reality has generally been regarded as one of Leonardo’s major failings. Yet in order to be a true visionary, one has to be willing to overreach and to fail some of the time. Innovation requires a reality distortion field. The things he envisioned for the future often came to pass, even if it took a few centuries. Scuba gear, flying machines, and helicopters now exist. Suction pumps now drain swamps. Along the route of the canal that Leonardo drew there is now a major highway.