Katie McManus explores Leonardo da Vinci's possible ADHD, pointing to his unfinished projects and inventive but impractical designs as evidence of how his mind worked and the frustrations he likely faced.
Leonardo da Vinci absolutely had adhd. There's no way this man did not have adhd. Most of his inventions didn't f Cking work. He designed flying machines that. I'm sorry, did not work. Like, I. I don't know if he ever tested them, but I'm pretty sure people would have died. He started so many paintings that he never actually finished. You know, and back in the day, when people would commission an artist to do a painting and they didn't finish the painting and they just kind of skedaddled to another city state, I can imagine that was pretty scary because these rich people had, like, people, you know, with weapons that they could hire to send after you. And yet, here's a man who let himself be frustrated, left things unfinished, because could you imagine trying to develop a flying machine that's just not working? And you've been working on it for years, and it's something you're doing in your spare time, and no one's actually paying you for it because, you know, no one actually believes that people can fly.