هنر نبوغ

Chapter 13

THE ART OF GENIUS: SIX WAYS

TO THINK LIKE EINSTEIN

by Michael Michalko

from The Futurist/Utne Reader

How do geniuses come up with ideas? What links the thinking style that produced Mona Lisa with the one that spawned the theory of relativity? What can we learn from the thinking strategies of the Galileos, Edisons, and Mozarts of history?

For years, scholars tried to study genius by analyzing statistics. In 1904, Havelock Ellis noted that most geniuses were fathered by men older than 30, had mothers younger than 25, and usually were sickly children. Other researchers reported that many were celibate?’ (Descartes), fatherless (Dickens), or motherless (Darwin). In the end, the data illuminated nothing.

Academics also tried to measure the links between intelligence and genius. But they found that run-of-the-mill physicists had IQs much higher than Nobel Prize Winner and extraordinary genius Richard Feynman, Whose IQ was a merely respectable 122. Genius is not about mastering 14 languages at the age of seven or even being especially smart. Creativity is not the same as intelligence.

Most people of average intelligence can figure out the expected conventional response to a given problem. For example, when asked “What is one-half of 13?” most of us immediately answer six and one half. That’s because We tend to think reproductively. When confronted with a problem, we sift through what we’ve been taught and What has worked for us in the past, select the most promising approach, and work toward the solution.

Geniuses, on the other hand, think productively. They ask: “How many different ways can I look at this problem?” and “How many ways can I solve it?” A productive thinker, for example, would find a number of ways to “halve 13”7:

6.5

1/3 = 1 and 3

THIR TEEN = 4

XI/II = 11 and 2

The mark of genius is the willingness to explore all the alternatives, not just the most likely solution. Reproductive thinking fosters rigidity.” This is why we often fail when we’re confronted with a new problem that appears on the surface to be similar to others we’ve solved, but is, in fact, significantly different. Interpreting a problem through your past experience will inevitably lead you astray.” If you think the way you’ve always thought, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

For centuries, the Swiss dominated the watch industry. But in 1968, when a U.S. inventor unveiled a battery-powered watch at the World Watch Congress, every Swiss watch manufacturer rejected it because it didn’t fit their limited paradigm.13 Meanwhile, Seiko, a Japanese electronics company, took one look at the invention and proceeded to change the future of the world watch market.

By studying the notebooks, correspondence, and conversations of some of the world’s great thinkers in science, art, and industry, scholars have identified the following thinking strategies that enable geniuses to generate original ideas:

1. Geniuses look at problems from all angles.” Sigmund Freud’s analytical methods were designed to find details that didn’t fit traditional paradigms in order to come up with a completely new point of view. To solve a problem creatively, you must abandon the first approach that comes to mind which usually stems from past experience, and

reconceptualize the problem.15 Geniuses do not merely solve existing problems; they identify new ones.

. Geniuses make their thought visible. Geniuses develop visual and spatial abilities that allow them to display information in new ways. The explosion of creativity in the Renaissance was tied to the development of graphic illustration during that period, notably the scientific diagrams of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei. Galileo revolutionized science by making his thought graphically visible while his contemporaries” used more conventional means.

. Geniuses produce. Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents,” still a record. He guaranteed a high level of productivity by giving himself idea quotaszls one minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every six months. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when he was sick or exhausted. Wolfgang Mozart produced more than 600 pieces of music.

. Geniuses make novel combinations. Like playful children with buckets of building blocks,2° geniuses constantly combine and recombine ideas, images, and thoughts. The laws of heredity” were developed by Gregor Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science of genetics.

. Geniuses force relationships. Their facility” to connect the unconnected enables geniuses to see things others miss.

Da Vinci noticed the similarity between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water - and concluded that sound travels in waves.

1. Geniuses prepare themselves for chance. Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, We end up doing something else. That’s the first principle of creative accident. We may II ask ourselves why We have failed to do What we intended, which is a reasonable question. But the creative accident leads to the question: What have we done? Answering that 90 one in a novel, unexpected Way is the essential creative act. It is not luck, but creative insight of the highest order.23 This may be the most important lesson of all: When you find something interesting, drop everything and go With it. Too many talented people fail to make significant leaps of imagination because they’ve become fixated on their pre-conceived plan.24 But not the truly great minds. They don’t Wait for gifts of chance; they make them happen.