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The Creativity Post | How Geniuses Think
Genius is not about having an extraordinarily high IQ, or even about being smart. It is not about finishing Mensa exercises in record time or mastering fourteen languages at the age of seven.
Geniuses think productively, not reproductively. They ask "How many different ways can I look at it?" not "What have I been taught by someone else on how to solve this?"
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Key Ideas
It means producing something novel or original, evaluating, solving problems, whether on paper, on stage, in a laboratory or even in the shower.
Geniuses know “how” to think, instead of “what” to think.
People who are more creative can simultaneously engage brain networks that don’t typically work together.
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Key Ideas
All great achievements involve some measure of collaboration.
Some geniuses were obvious partners - like Orville and Wilbur Wright, or Marie and Pierre Curie, or John ...
We are just not so aware of it, because much of the creative exchange happens quietly to the side, and does not become part of our modern history.
There is the case of Emily Dickinson. But looking closer, it becomes clear that she was immensely interested in people and wrote hundreds of poems for particular people, and sending them to them.
The big idea is that genius partnerships are stories of dialogue. As Warren Buffett said about Charlie Munger: "Charlie does the talking, I just move my lips."
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Key Ideas
Research found that people who embrace opposing demands show greater creativity, flexibility, and productivity.
This is called a "paradox mindset" and it can be c...
Reflecting on apparent contradictions can break down our assumptions and offer us new ways of looking at problems.
Psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg noted that each revolutionary thinker had spent time actively thinking of multiple opposites simultaneously. For example, Einstein considered how an object could be both at rest and moving depending on the position of the observer. This led to his relativity theory.
Studies have shown that "paradoxical cognition" can help average thinkers to solve everyday problems.
Researchers demonstrated that people that have to reflect on apparently paradoxical goals, such as minimizing costs and maximizing innovation, are more creative than those who only consider one goal or the other.