Why this list is so famous
The list from around 1490 became famous when NPR's Robert Krulwich translated it into English. A later list, from around 1510, has the lines about the skull and the woodpecker. Biographer Walter Isaacson turned “describe the tongue of the woodpecker” into something like the motto of Leonardo's curiosity.
What makes it great: it's the to-do list of a genius, and it reads like everybody's. Something big, something practical, someone to ask, and one line nobody remembers the reason for.
Line eight
Describe the tongue of the woodpecker
Not every action needs a reason. Leonardo wrote down whatever made him curious and came back to it later. In Stipp you write a note and turn the lines you actually want to do into actions. The weird ones too.