by I C Robledo
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Jorge Luis Borges, Amar Bose, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday, Stephen Hawking, Grace Hopper, Leonardo da Vinci, Norbert Wiener
Description of the Principle
We all know what curiosity is. But a deep curiosity is when you want to know more. And even when you find some answers, you just have more and more questions. And so there is a deep need to know rising up from inside that can never be quenched. This is the experience many geniuses have had. In my research, I believe it is one of the most common traits of genius, and also one of the most essential to realize your full potential.
When you are curious, this drives you to continue on a difficult problem when others have given up, and to truly understand everything about it. Curiosity is driven in part by understanding that there is a lot out there in the world that is unknown, waiting to be discovered. Then when you get out there, and you start discovering new things, often times you realize there is even more you didn’t know. So you want to keep going, learning more, and the process repeats itself.
Benefits of the Principle
The late Amar Bose made breakthroughs in a variety of fields such as acoustics (e.g., the famous Bose speakers), aviation, automobiles, defense, and nuclear physics. According to an article in the December 2004 issue of Popular Science, titled “Better Living Through Curiosity”, he claimed that the key way he was able to have such a great impact in so many fields was through his insatiable curiosity. In his daily life, he never stopped asking questions, always wondering why things did not work better, and how he could be the one to improve them.
For example, Bose’s son Vanu was once with his father, who was caught driving in pouring rain with the most awful windshield wipers. “Most people would just complain about how the wipers don't work right,” Vanu said, “but he was analyzing why they didn't work and thinking out loud about how to make them better. A few weeks later I saw on his desk a patent application for a new design for windshield wipers.” Through asking questions and looking for better solutions for his entire life, Amar Bose created innovations and had breakthroughs in a wide range of fields. Norbert Wiener, Bose’s mentor and an American mathematician, philosopher, and originator of cybernetics, has also credited his curiosity for his own accomplishments.
Curiosity is one of the best motivators to get things done. If you have curiosity, a deep desire to know and understand, then you will make much more progress than others. Many times even if they are smarter or have better preparation, the person who is more curious tends to be more driven and determined, and wins out in the end. The curious person won’t get tired of working as easily. Working will feel like play, like a chance to discover something new. Many geniuses turn to science or related fields, probably because science is really about the systematic discovery of new things. It’s about turning the unknown into something that is known and understood.
Another benefit of being highly curious is that you will tend to learn much more than other people. When you are deeply curious, you will be driven to learn about new things. Then, as you learn, you will come up with new questions and become curious to figure out the answers to some of these questions. There is a loop here. Curiosity leads you to learn about new things. Learning about new things makes you more curious. The opposite of this is also important to consider. If you are not curious, you do not learn about new things. If you do not learn about new things, you are not curious. A deep curiosity is a major advantage to the brilliant mind, and a lack of curiosity is a serious disadvantage.
How to Apply the Principle
Visit a museum
Sometimes we lack curiosity because we lack exposure to new things. Museums are a great place to visit for help with this. Not only are there new things to learn, but they allow us to explore what we have read about, and bring it to life. Museums can help bring out your curiosity because they turn the learning experience into something more fun and active. They often have exhibits, models, and energetic people who can explain concepts in an easy to understand way. This can help spark curiosity. Think back to the last time you visited a museum. If it has been a long while, this could be a good time to visit one. Try going to one that specializes in an interest of yours. It could be dinosaurs, science, history, art, space, marine life, or something else.
Feed your curiosity
I think many of us are naturally curious, but sometimes we don’t feed it enough. Curiosity is something that must be fed to draw it out more and more. For example, when you are curious about something, it’s important to investigate this further. Ask questions. Look up information. Explore. When you take that first step, you open a door that is likely to spark your curiosity further and further. Also, by being curious and learning something new, you will feel good that you are learning and understanding new things. This positive feeling will help guide you to being curious in the future and learning more again.
The problem many of us have is that we get used to having our curiosity stifled by others when we’re younger, and even by ourselves as adults. Our task isn’t to become curious, but to reawaken the curiosity already inside of us. Don’t get in the habit of being silent when you have questions. We shouldn’t think that other people will laugh at our ignorance or think less of us. By being too timid, we will actually grow more and more ignorant. And in fact, if you share your curiosity, you will often find that other people had similar questions as you, and others will be happy to inform you and share their expertise. Of course, sometimes you may receive a rude remark, but you shouldn’t let those experiences ruin things for you. Be curious, and dare to ask questions. You have probably heard the saying, “There are no foolish questions, only foolish people.” Consider that maybe those people are foolish because they didn’t ask enough questions.
Accompany a curious friend
Do you know someone who is very curious and asks a lot of questions? An easy way to spark your curiosity is to spend more time with that person. Curiosity is not only a great way to promote learning, but it can also be entertaining to observe the mind of a super curious person. They will go to greater and greater depths, searching for new questions most people wouldn’t have even considered. You may be surprised to find that curiosity can be contagious. Have you ever noticed that when an interesting question is asked, everyone all of a sudden wants to know the answer? (For example, if a baby is born exactly on the border between two countries, is it a citizen of both countries?) Unfortunately, many of us become used to getting answers with no real effort. The curious mind, however, needs to get used to working to find answers, because the true mysteries of life do not always have easy answers. The most curious people tend to be children, artists, investigators, inventors, and entrepreneurs. Seek them out, befriend them, and reawaken your curiosity with their help.
Secret Principle #3 : Adapt to Changes in the Environment
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water, my friend.”
– Bruce Lee, Hong Kong American martial artist, action film director, martial arts instructor, philosopher, filmmaker, and founder of Jeet Kune Do.
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Muhammad Ali, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Bruce Lee, Ernst Mach, Sun Tzu, H. G. Wells
Description of the Principle
Adaptation is about being willing to change your approach to a scenario or problem, depending on what the situation calls for. The person who is willing to smoothly change approach depending on the situation (or new changes in a situation) is highly adaptive. The person who insists he knows the one right approach, and always takes that approach no matter the situation, is not adaptive. You can’t force one solution onto every single problem you have. You have to change your approach depending on the problem.
The m
ost certain thing we can know in life, the world, and the universe, is there will always be change. People are always growing or aging, they change their minds, and change moods. As another example of change, the Milky Way Galaxy, which we live in, is in constant motion even if we don’t notice it. Actually, according to astronomers, the Milky Way is on course to collide with Andromeda (another galaxy). But don’t worry, this will happen in about four billion years. Things are always changing.
The point of this book was to reveal universal principles of genius or of intelligence that could apply to most people, in many different contexts. This is perhaps the most universal principle in the book. This principle appears to apply to all kinds of life here on Earth, not just humans. The more adaptive a creature is, the more intelligent it is.
Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” I believe adaptability is actually a form of intelligence. And clearly, adaptation is important to survival, but it extends beyond this to many aspects of our lives. Most of us want to do more than just survive. We want to thrive. But there are countless situations that require adaptation. In war, conditions are constantly changing, and soldiers and generals must adapt. In social situations, conversations change and people’s moods can change. In a strategic competition, whether playing chess or in a wrestling match, the position of advantage can change rapidly. Knowing how to adapt is important in these systems, and in virtually every system.
Interestingly, people often assume that a situation will remain static. Although many of us know things change sooner or later, in the short term we expect conditions to stay the same, or close to the same. For example, no one is probably expecting a catastrophic tornado or hurricane to hit their home tomorrow. And even less are actually prepared to deal with such an event. It is part of human nature that those who live in a good economy expect that to continue. Those who live in a good weather climate expect the same. Those who are in a positive relationship also expect this to continue. However, things can change. Entire species thrive one day and are gone the next. Those who pay the most attention to changes, even subtle ones, and how they can adjust and adapt to them, will tend to prosper the most.
Benefits of the Principle
If you make an effort to pay attention to the changes happening around you, you will be better prepared to flow with them. As Bruce Lee’s quote above suggests, it is often better to flow and go along with the changes, as opposed to putting up a hard resistance to them. Even a tree abides by this principle. After there is a strong storm, with heavy gusts of wind, you don’t see trees snapped in half. You see trees still standing, most of them anyway, because they bend with the pressures of the wind. They do not resist so much that they break under the pressure, like a pencil would.
Sometimes the benefit of adapting well is just to be able to survive where others have fallen. But often, surviving gives you the chance to find the best path moving forward. Those who adapt are able to survive another day, whether it is at business, war, life, or something else. Anyone who was in a situation where it was important to adapt, or risk losing big, will appreciate the benefits of being dynamic and fluid. And they will not take this principle for granted.
Let’s take another perspective. Think of what happens to those who don’t adapt. They lose their jobs. They lose wars. They fail, at one thing or another. Adaptors win. Those who fail to adapt to changing conditions lose. It is sad, but this is the reality.
Now, think about business owners. It is tricky to run a successful business because so many factors are changing every day. The business and its leaders need to adapt to changing consumer needs, to the competition, to new technologies, to the economy, and so forth. Those businesses which adapt the best are able to survive, and often thrive. Those who put true priority on their adaptability, by investing in research & development and starting new product lines and innovations (e.g., Amar Bose was known to do both), will have a chance at true longevity.
How to Apply the Principle
Realize almost everything is in a state of change
Adaptation is easy to understand, but not always easy to apply in real life situations. This is because adapting seems to mean very different things depending on the circumstance. But fortunately there are some common features we can focus on, which will help you to adapt in a variety of scenarios.
First, realize that everything you do is open to change. Most of us are not working within static systems, or systems that stay the same. We are working within dynamic systems, or systems that change. Static systems may exist in pure mathematics (e.g., 2 + 2 always equals 4), but you are unlikely to find them outside of this. In the real world, many things are changing all at once and we cannot rely on an equation or calculation to give us the final answer.
Pay attention to change
Now that you know most systems tend to change, you have to pay attention to those changes, even to subtle ones. You first have to observe that something is shifting, before you can even decide what it means, and if you need to take action because of it. Of course, you won’t need to adapt because of every little change you notice, but sometimes you will want to do so.
As an example of how to be adaptive, consider social situations with a group of friends. Usually, things are changing constantly, and you must adapt. One person may be upset at another. Someone else may feel insecure. Another is bragging insensitively, as others lack what he is bragging about having so much of. With constant change, it can be helpful to take an adaptive approach and to provide what the situation calls for. For example, if someone is sad, to cheer them up. If someone feels left out, to include them. And if someone says something unfriendly, to try to alleviate the matter.
If you would like another type of example, consider the sport of professional boxing. Elite fighters pay special attention to the smallest motions that indicate what the opponent plans to do next. Perhaps the eyes glance in the direction of the intended attack. Often, the shoulders sway before a punch is swung, giving a boxer enough time to dodge it. They call these telegraphed punches. Telegraphing is when you unintentionally alert your opponent as to what your plans are. To the untrained eye, the punch comes out of nowhere, landing a knockout or even fatal blow. To the trained eye, responsive to the slightest of changes, the punch is predictable and can be easily dodged.
The late Muhammad Ali was the complete master of dodging punches. In a fight with Michael Dokes in 1977, he dodged an unbelievable 21 punches within 10 seconds! Muhammad Ali always paid attention to the most subtle cues that even other professional boxers would miss. Remember his famous phrase:
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.”
He told us himself the key to his genius technique. Always in motion, he was always adapting to the changing conditions of the fight. He was supremely well adapted to the boxing ring, or as Bruce Lee might say, shapeless and formless like water.
Condition yourself to adapt
The best way to be adaptive and to always be prepared to change is to always be in situations that require change. If you are too comfortable, too used to everything being the same, then when something changes you will be much less prepared. We have to stretch our abilities and put ourselves in new situations regularly, in order to become the most adaptive. As an example, you can travel, interact with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, or do volunteer work in an area outside of your normal activity. To truly challenge your ability to adapt, find completely new situations to put yourself in.
According to many surveys, public speaking is often the number one fear people report having, ranking even above the fear of death. One way to become more adaptive would be to focus on overcoming fears such as this. Whether or not you have this fear, you may consider joining Toastmasters (or another public speaking group) or joining an improvisational group, where you act out different s
cenarios in front of an audience. It may not feel comfortable at first, but you will become more adaptive.
Secret Principle #4 : Pursue a High Level of Challenge
“I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.
– Maya Angelo, American poet, memoirist, and social activist.
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Maya Angelou, Johann Sebastian Bach, Akrit Jaswal, James Joyce, Michelangelo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Elon Musk, Isaac Newton, Marcel Proust, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alan Turing, Leonardo da Vinci
Description of the Principle
If you have known someone brilliant, you might have noticed that they were probably not the type of person to be easily satisfied, especially not with low quality work. Instead, they go into highly demanding fields. Or at least they will create a lot of challenges for themselves in a field, even if it isn’t typically seen as highly demanding. For example, a genius may pursue medicine, art, law, engineering, physics, or something else of a high challenge. They do this because taking the easy path doesn’t bring much satisfaction. Doing something easy will feel dull and pointless, whereas doing something challenging awakens the inner-genius.
Even within their own fields of expertise, which are often challenging, bright people tend to gravitate toward the tougher problems in the field. They may dream of tackling big problems, like finding the cure for cancer (e.g., as Akrit Jaswal plans to do, who conducted his first surgery at just six years old), or taking humans to Mars (e.g., as Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, aims to do by 2024).
