Thinking like a genius

[Pavan Agrawal]

1. Look at problems in many different ways.
Find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has
publicized!)

Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form
of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many
different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was
too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a
new one.

2. Visualize!

When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it
necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as
possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and
believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant
role in his thinking process.

3. Produce!
A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.

Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by
giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036
scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University
of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists
produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't
afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at
excellence.

4. Make novel combinations.

Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different
combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.

The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is
based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined
mathematics and biology to create a new science.

5. Form relationships.
Make connections between dissimilar subjects.

Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a
stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that
sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for
telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.

6. Think in opposites.

Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites
together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new
level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led
to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending
thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.

7. Think metaphorically.

Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that
the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between
two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of
special gifts.

8. Prepare yourself for chance.

Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing
something else. That is the first principle of creative accident.
Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an
unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and
how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the
question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"

9. Have patience

Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906) is recognized as one of the 19th
century's greatest painters, and is often called the father of modern
art, an avant garde bridge between the impressionists and the cubists.
During his life he only had a few exhibitions though his influence on
subsequent artists was great as an innovator with shape and form. His
genius, however, was not evident until late in life. He was refused
admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at age 22 and his first solo
exhibition was at age 56. His genius was the product of many years'
practice and experimental innovation.