THE 46 RULES OF GENIUS
An Innovator’s Guide to Creativity
Text and illustrations by Marty Neumeier
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Copyright © 2014 by Marty Neumeier
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ISBN 13: 978-0-133-90006-4
ISBN 10: 0-133-90006-1
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Text and
illustrations
by
Marty Neumeier
In honor of
Saul Steinberg
and
E. B. White
WHAT IS A GENIUS?
To most people, a genius is someone with a towering IQ—say 140 points or higher. This is simplistic. A genius is more than that, but also less. In practice it only takes an IQ of 125 to become a genius. What you need beyond that is a facile imagination and the skills to apply it, driven by a passionate will toward a focused goal.
A genius doesn’t start out as a genius at every-thing but a genius at something. For example, you can be a genius at molecular biology, or a genius at reading people’s feelings. You can be a genius at programming software, or a genius at broken-field running. This puts genius-hood within the reach of nearly everybody. Over time, a genius may connect several somethings into a semblance of everything, but this is optional in the definition of genius.
In my recent book Metaskills, I laid out five talents we’ll need to thrive in an age of increasing man-machine collaboration. These talents, which I’ve called metaskills, are feeling, or empathy and intuition; seeing, or systems thinking; dreaming, or applied imagination; making, or design talent; and learning, the ability to acquire new skills. None of these needs a high IQ. What they need is a high regard for creativity. The rules in this book are creative rules. They’re general guidelines to help you envision, invent, contribute, and grow.
Then what’s a genius? Here’s my working definition: A genius is any person who turns insight into innovation, and in the process changes our view of the world. In other words, it’s someone who takes creativity to the point of originality. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said it best: “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”
The rules in this book are as timeless as they can be. None of them are new, yet they can help you create something new. Michelangelo didn’t invent the hammer and chisel, but by using these tools he sculpted the Pietà. Just as you can’t shape a block of marble with your bare hands, you can’t shape ideas with your bare mind. You need rules. Rules are the tools of genius. Use them when they help; put them aside when they don’t.
I’ve purposely written a concise book. Most of the creative people I know are consumed by their projects, and reading a long book is a luxury they can’t always afford. So here’s a slim volume with bite-size advice. You can reach into it randomly, underline its salient points, return to the rules as needed.
I make no claims of completeness for The 46 Rules of Genius. Instead, I’ve chosen to focus on the principles most often ignored, forgotten, or heedlessly broken. It starts with some advice on strategy—or how to get the right idea. It continues with practical tips on execution—how to get the idea right. From there it moves to building your creative skills over time, and finally to putting your brilliance to work in the larger world.
Caution: The 46 Rules of Genius is not for everyone, for the simple reason that not everyone can be a genius. This is not usually a failing of native intelligence. It’s more likely a lack of a) will, or b) skill. I presume you have a good supply of a), or you wouldn’t have this book in your hand. As to b), you’ll need a little help—and a healthy appetite for work. Happily, work is not really work when you’re investing in what you love.
My fondest wish is that you’ll combine the desire you already have with these time-tested principles to ignite an endless cycle of creative growth: your desire will drive your learning, and your learning will fuel your desire. This is the magic that makes a genius. If you accept this as a central premise, the rest will follow.
—Marty Neumeier
CONTENTS
Part 1 How can I innovate?
Rule 1 : Break the rules
Rule 2 : Wish for what you want
Rule 3 : Feel before you think
Rule 4 : See what’s not there
Rule 5 : Ask a bigger question
Rule 6 : Frame problems tightly
Rule 7 : Think whole thoughts
Rule 8 : Stay in the dragon pit
Rule 9 : Approach answers obliquely
Rule 10 : Wait for the jolt
Rule 11 : Use beauty as a yardstick
Part 2 How should I work?
Rule 12 : Design quickly, decide slowly
Rule 13 : Use a linear process for static elements
Rule 14 : Use a dynamic process for reactive elements
Rule 15 : Work to an appropriate structure
Rule 16 : Express related elements in a similar manner
Rule 17 : Match form to function, function to form
Rule 18 : Don’t be boring
Rule 19 : Put the surprise where you want the attention
Rule 20 : Apply aesthetics deliberately
Rule 21 : Visualize with sketches, models, or prototypes
Rule 22 : Embrace messiness
Rule 23 : Test your ideas in realistic situations
Rule 24 : Simplify
Part 3 How can I learn?
Rule 25 : Learn how to learn
Rule 26 : Start with curiosity, not belief
Rule 27 : Do your own projects
Rule 28 : Keep a hero file
Rule 29 : Invest in your originality
Rul
e 30 : Learn strategically
Rule 31 : Shore up your weaknesses
Rule 32 : Spend long hours in the joy zone
Rule 33 : Make educational mistakes
Rule 34 : Seek instructive criticism
Rule 35 : Fuel your passion
Rule 36 : Develop an authentic style
Rule 37 : Practice
Part 4 How can I matter?
Rule 38 : Overcommit to a mission
Rule 39 : Stay focused
Rule 40 : Follow through
Rule 41 : Do good design
Rule 42 : Build support methodically
Rule 43 : Don’t blame others
Rule 44 : Join a network
Rule 45 : Become who you are
Rule 46 : Make new rules
About the author
Part 1
HOW CAN I INNOVATE?
There is
no great genius
without a mixture
of madness.
—Aristotle
Rule 1
BREAK THE RULES
You’ve probably heard that it’s unwise to break the rules until you know how to use them. You’ve probably also heard the opposite—there are no rules—it’s the job of innovators to disregard convention. Which of these is true?
Oddly, both. This is the Genius Paradox. You have to disobey the rules of creativity to obey the rules of creativity. And in obeying the rules of creativity, you automatically disobey the rules of creativity. That’s because the number one rule is to break the rules.
Creative rules are not rigid dictates but rough principles—patterns that a variety of artists, scientists, and thinkers have used for centuries as the scaffolding for their inventions. You shouldn’t be a slave to them. You don’t need to keep them in your conscious mind. But having considered them will broaden your repertoire for any creative challenge that calls for a full response.
Here’s how to resolve the Genius Paradox:
1) React to the rules by embracing them or breaking them.
2) Observe the results.
3) Rewrite the rules from your own experience.
You’ll find that there are rules for creativity—your rules. They may not be the ones that others follow, but they’ll be true and useful to you.
One caveat: Make sure your new principles are not just scars from a previous experience—it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusion from a single failure. Weigh your newly forged rules against the rules of the ages to make sure they have the heft and hardiness to do the job.
Rule 2
WISH FOR WHAT YOU WANT
Wishing is like a warm-up sketch for problem solving. When you let your mind wander across the blank page of possibilities, all constraints and preconceptions disappear, leaving only the trace of a barely glimpsed dream, the merest hint of a sketch of an idea. To start wishing, ask yourself the kind of questions that begin:
How might I...?
What’s stopping us from...?
In what ways could I...?
What would happen if...?
From there you can ask follow-up questions like:
Why would we...?
What has changed to allow us to...?
Who would need to...?
When should I...?
At this stage there’s no reason to place limits on your wandering. What’s the can’t do that you wish were a can do? The future problem you could start solving now? The half-baked notion you’d like to see a reality? Where’s the place where the suddenly possible meets the desperately necessary? Wishing allows you to leave the realm of limitations, if only for a few moments, to imagine a future worth pursuing.
Rule 3
FEEL BEFORE YOU THINK
Don’t jump into planning as soon as you’ve sighted a goal. Learn to be still and listen. Pay attention to the nagging voice. The uneasy stomach. The barely felt longing. Your subject may have something to tell you.
Resist the temptation to impose a cookie-cutter solution on an intriguing problem, or a groundbreaking solution on an insignificant problem. Hold back until you’ve had enough time to sort through your feelings and consider the issues. Depending on the nature and scope of the challenge, this could take five seconds or five days. It takes what it takes.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re searching for facts, you’ll cast your eyes downward as if the information were on the table? And when you’re trying to invent an answer, you’ll look upward as if the solution were on the ceiling? These are commonly observed tendencies in problem solvers. But when you’re trying to access your intuition, looking won’t help at all. You’ll need to feel.
Feeling your way to a solution is like an athlete deciding his or her next move. It happens more in the body than the brain. It gives you direct access to your intuition so you can bypass the usual fears, distractions, default solutions, and ego traps that can make your work less than brilliant. Feeling lets you forge a connection with your subject that mere thinking can’t reach.
Close your eyes and drift with the problem. Let it talk to you. Imagine you’re a psychologist, and the problem is your patient. Listen carefully. Give it your deepest empathy and fullest attention. Be available to the problem. Don’t try to fix it. Feel your way forward.
Rule 4
SEE WHAT’S NOT THERE
One of the skills that separates a leader from a follower is the ability to see what might be, but so far isn’t. Most people can see what’s already there. You don’t need magic glasses to see that the Eiffel Tower is a popular tourist destination, or that the area of a rectangle is the product of its height and width, or that millions of people will pay extra for a fancy cup of coffee. But you do need magic glasses to see what’s still missing from the world, since by definition what’s missing is invisible.
The trick is to notice what artists and designers call negative space. It’s the plain background of a painting, the white space on a printed page, the silence between lines of a play, or the rests within a musical score. In the world of art, these are purposeful elements of composition. In the market-place, these are crevices that harbor opportunity.
Try these three techniques for discovering the negative space in a marketplace, a problem, or a situation.
Sift through threats for hidden possibilities. Every threat carries with it the potential for innovation. The problem of obesity contains the possibility of new kinds of nutrition. The problem of global pollution contains the possibility of new energy sources. The problem of high unemployment contains the possibility of new educational models. The list is endless, if you can learn to see what’s not there.
Examine sectors for uneven rates of change. The future is already here, goes the saying—it’s just distributed unevenly. Look for areas that have changed, then look for similar or adjacent areas that haven’t changed. Search for pockets of resistance to successful new ideas. Chances are, it’s only a matter of time before change comes. Why not be the catalyst?
Imagine how a growing trend might affect an established norm. Make a list of nascent and dominant trends, then mentally apply them to industries, businesses, and activities that haven’t changed for a long while. What will the trend toward organic farming mean for fast-food restaurants? What will mobile payments do to retail shopping habits? How might nanotechnology change the energy market? How will always-on computing change the college experience?
To find out what’s not there, look for the job not done, the road not taken, the product not made. These are the magic glasses that let you see the invisible and conceive the inconceivable.
Rule 5
ASK A BIGGER QUESTION
Figure out what type of problem you’re solving. Is it a simple problem? A complex problem? A structural problem? A communication problem? A technology problem? A political problem? A leadership problem? A design problem? A budget problem? Unless you know what type of problem you’re solving, your solution will be wrong, no matter how we
ll you seem to solve it.
For most of us, the problems we tackle are given to us by someone else—a boss, a teacher, a client, a committee, an organization. While the problem may seem logical in the way it’s stated, a little bit of probing may reveal a faulty framework.
The framework is the boundary drawn around it, the “rope of scope” that keeps it from sprawling to infinity. It narrows the focus, suggests a direction for the work, limits the investment, and determines how success is measured. If the framework is wrong, everything else will be wrong.
Your first impulse may be to accept the problem as stated. Resist. Be curious. Ask questions. Probe further. While it may seem disrespectful or annoying to pester your problem-giver with too many questions at once, that doesn’t mean you can’t raise them mentally and marshal your thoughts for a later conversation. In fact, you may not even have any questions at first. Sometimes questions need time to surface.
As you become more proficient at accepting assignments, you’ll find questions like these helpful:
Have we seen this problem before?
What do we know about it?
Are the boundaries the right boundaries?
Are we even solving the right problem?
Should we solve a bigger problem instead?
If we succeed, what will be improved?
What will be diminished?
What will be replaced?
What opportunities will it spawn?
Who stands to gain and who stands to lose?
Do we need to solve the problem at all?
Who says? So what? Why not?
By asking these types of questions, you may find that the boundaries of the problem were drawn too small—the actual problem was more important, and the only reason to minimize it was to shrink it to fit a budget, a time frame, a job description, or a skill set. While these may be issues, it’s better to face them head on and make them part of the brief.
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