by I C Robledo
Keep an opportunistic mindset
Generally, have an opportunistic and open mindset. If an acquaintance mentions that she is enrolling in a pottery course, offer to join her. If you sit next to a chef on a plane, try to learn some secrets to cooking great tasting food. If a friend is working on an invention, but you are the expert in the area and he is not, offer some helpful suggestions. Do not rule out learning opportunities offhand. Give it a try, and see where it goes.
Secret Principle #17 : Build Connections
“Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses – especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
– Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, poetry, and cartography.
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Langan, Leonardo da Vinci
Description of the Principle
It is probably no coincidence that some of the brightest people who worked in many fields, such as Johann von Goethe and Leonardo da Vinci, were the ones who emphasized that they saw many interconnections between topics. Many of us get used to fitting topics neatly into different areas, inside our minds. But those brilliant people who made an effort to see interconnections between practically everything, may help us see that perhaps there are no distinct lines that separate math from science, science from art, or art from history.
This principle of connection, will line up most directly with the way our brains actually work. The brain itself is one big network of interconnected neurons. It only makes sense that building connections would be a principle of genius. We all make connections, of course, but brilliant minds will make it a point to seek out more and more of them. They want to know how one thing relates to another. But they aren’t satisfied there. They want to see how everything relates to every other thing.
Some brilliant minds have actually been interested in taking connections a step further, and searching for a great unity in their field. Albert Einstein, for example, wanted to find a unifying theory that could unite the rules of physics both on a small scale (e.g., quantum physics) and a large scale (e.g., classical physics). He was searching for a principle that connected both, which would have changed the way everyone viewed physics. This was perhaps one of the most ambitious undertakings in scientific history. Even he knew the odds were stacked against him. He never did find this unifying theory, but the fact that he was interested in it shows how important connections were to him.
As another example, consider Christopher Langan. He has a reported IQ from 190-210 (although note that scores becomes less reliable at these high ranges) and has been described by the media as “the smartest man in America”. Langan has connected many different areas with his Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe. The main components are actually in the title itself: cognitive theory, modeling, and the universe itself. In an interview on Superscholar.org, he was asked to describe the theory in plain English. Part of his response was:
Cognitive theory refers to a general language of cognition (the structural and transitional rules of cognition); universe refers to the content of that language, or that to which the language refers; and model refers to the mapping which carries the content into the language, thus creating information.
He has also said “you cannot describe the universe completely with any accuracy unless you're willing to admit that it's both physical and mental in nature”. Langan has worked on this “theory of the relationship between mind and reality” for decades, where clearly he has made connections that many of us might not have intuitively made (e.g., mind, universe, modeling, language). The theory is described in more detail at CTMU.org
Benefits of the Principle
Challenging yourself to make connections between different fields can help improve your creative ability. Often, when there is a big problem, people become locked into seeing it in just one way. They have a difficult time changing how they look at it, and struggle to make much progress in solving it. When you can connect one problem with something else, even if it appears unrelated at first, you will greatly increase your chance of finding good solutions. Your ability to see areas as related, when others see them as completely separate, will also help you to make creative breakthroughs and perceive links other people had not noticed.
If you were to focus on understanding how everything interconnects, even seemingly unconnected areas, you could learn about a variety of topics at depth, all at once. Many people will get confused when they try to learn too many different subjects at one time, because they will not see a relationship or connection. But if you practice understanding the interrelationships, you will position yourself to master a variety of unique fields, as Johann von Goethe and Leonardo da Vinci did.
How to Apply the Principle
How does your field connect with related areas?
To make more connections, ask yourself how one topic relates to many others. For example, it is clear that mathematics interrelates with chemistry, physics, computer science, and statistics. Business interrelates with economics, statistics, communication, law, and psychology. Geography relates to history, sociology, anthropology, and meteorology. To get started with making connections, ask yourself how your field or fields of interest connect closely to others. Learn those relationships and connections as deeply as you can. Then take things a step further. Start asking yourself how your field may connect to areas that seem completely unrelated. For example, a farmer may have something to teach you about parenting. He may tell you that to plant a seed and abandon it is silly. He would tell you it requires sunlight, water, fertilizer, and ongoing monitoring to make sure it is progressing well. Similarly, a child cannot be expected to do well if left alone. She needs food, water, guidance, and ongoing monitoring to make sure she is progressing well.
Look for relationships between things that appear unrelated
Stretch your ability to make connections. Start asking how even things that seem completely unrelated and disconnected, could in fact be connected. For example, how does the political system of the ancient Greeks relate to the political systems today? How does the flight of birds relate to the flight of commercial planes? How does the social structure of ants relate to the social structure of humans? Notice that in most of these examples something that you are probably less familiar with was compared to something that you are likely more familiar with. Keep in mind that connections are easier to make when you are working with some familiarity with at least one of the ideas. You can come up with more questions like this for yourself, and then search for the relationships.
Thinking, Strategies, Problem-Solving
“First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman, with works of poetry and fiction, and treatises on botany, anatomy, and color.
Hopefully you can see that the right personal qualities and dedication to learning are both very important to building a brilliant mind. You can think of the prior two sections as providing the necessary conditions for genius to arise. And now that you are ready, this section will be a bit more advanced and elaborate.
The way geniuses think, their strategies and approaches to making sense of the world, and how they solve problems are all intertwined, and so they will all be covered in this section.
The reality is that how geniuses think is not so easy to discover. There is no straightforward way to get inside the greatest minds who ever lived. Of course, since we do not have access to their minds, we must look at their actions, their words, and even their creations in order to gain a clue as to what went on inside. This section will cover thinking patterns that these bright minds went through, in light of this kind of evidence.
We will a
lso look at strategies they used for understanding the world around them. Brilliant minds are superb at coming up with useful systems, approaches, and strategies to quickly make sense of the world. The wonderful thing is that these can be learned and practiced, even by those of us who do not yet consider ourselves geniuses.
Another important aspect of great minds is how they solve problems. There are many types of problems, of course, but there are some ways in which they are all similar, and brilliant minds have specific approaches that they bring to virtually all problems. We will learn this, so we too can be better problem-solvers.
Secret Principle #18 : Question and Test Your Assumptions
“If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.”
– Orville Wright, American inventor and aviation pioneer.
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Isaac Asimov, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, Orville and Wilbur Wright
Description of the Principle
You may have heard the advice, “Don’t make assumptions”. When you think about it though, this is not practical advice. Instead, it makes more sense to question and test your assumptions.
For example, every day, as a matter of being human and living our lives, we must make assumptions. I assume that when I get up in the morning all of my furniture and items will be in the same places as I left them when I went to sleep the night before. I also assume the floor will not break underneath me when I walk on wood, carpet, or marble. These scenarios are so consistently predictable that you probably make these assumptions too. Most of us are probably aware that we need to be careful about assuming too much, but you must understand that no matter how much we try to avoid making assumptions, we will always have to make some.
With that said, it is still important to question many assumptions. For example, often a respected person or leader will make a statement, and many people will repeat it as if it were a fact. And a repeated assumption is made, as word spreads and everyone assumes that the message is accurate. Instead, we should be cautious about accepting something as fact too quickly. Of course, questioning assumptions will become more critical when you are planning to take action based on the information you receive. To take action based on a faulty assumption can result in big errors, so we must be careful to avoid this.
Benefits of the Principle
When you question the assumptions of others, and even your own, you will help to stop yourself from wasting time and losing productivity. By catching one faulty assumption and stopping yourself from moving in that direction, you will be able to make steady progress instead of getting stuck. Keep in mind that even if you believe in one wrong assumption, it will be easy to make even more incorrect assumptions. For example, if I tell you the Earth is flat, and you believe it, it’s easy to think all planets are flat and the sun too. One bad assumption can lead to many more. Instead, the genius tends to be good at finding the best intellectual paths to explore. One way of doing this is actually to eliminate the bad paths that lead nowhere, the false assumptions.
Let’s look at a problem with accepting too many assumptions without questioning them. When people believe in a bad assumption, they tend to stop looking for alternative explanations. There have been many times in history, and recent times when even scientists have made incorrect assumptions. Sometimes they may have been so eager to make progress that they did not take the time to make sure their assumptions were all valid. In many cases, this led to years or even decades without progress. What is worse, is there is often a chain reaction of several scientists or people believing an assumption. After enough people believe in it, it becomes “common knowledge”, and people seem even less likely to question it. The lesson is clear: We need to question assumptions and test them for ourselves, even those that may be accepted by the majority.
If you want to observe many assumptions at work, observe children. As children, we tend to make a variety of assumptions, which some of us even carry into adulthood. As a young child (e.g., around nine years and younger) I made a type of assumption that other children might make too. I assumed everything was as it appeared to be. Everything people told me was always true, without exception. Every rule that I learned always applied, every single time without fail. I can actually recall the exact moment that shattered this pattern of assumption making for me. I was in Chicago, walking ahead of my mother through the city. There was a “Do not walk” sign, so I stopped. A moment later the sign switched to “Walk”, and so I started to walk forward. Through the corner of my eye I saw something moving fast, so I stopped. It was a car running the red light. My movement was enough to scare the driver, who slammed on the breaks. His wheels landed about a foot in front of me. I took a step back, and he apologized and drove on. My mother rushed forward and I told her that the sign said “Walk”. She said “Yes, I know, but sometimes people don’t follow the rules. You have to be careful.” Clearly, we have to be cautious about assuming a rule or concept will always apply.
How to Apply the Principle
Just because you hear it often, doesn’t make it true
Sometimes, we see or hear one ‘fact’ in so many different places, that it begins to seem true. Have you heard that we only use 10% of our brains? This is something stated frequently, probably by people who assumed that it was true when they heard it, but it is not a fact. This is not a statement that can be supported scientifically. How easily these so-called facts become part of mainstream knowledge can be scary. Consider that surely everything stated in ads and commercials can’t be 100% true. But we may hear certain things so often that we believe them to be true, just through the repetition. Be cautious with this. Avoid thinking that just because you have heard something many times that it must be true.
Know where your information is coming from
Stop and ask yourself where your information is coming from. This may be an interesting point to use your author, myself, as an example. Your source of information in this book is coming from someone with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Purdue University, and a Master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma. I have written many academic articles and popular books about intellectual and creative abilities.
The point is you should have some awareness of where your information is coming from. If you can’t trust the source, or if your source is not an expert in the area that they give advice, then you can’t trust the information. Knowing your source of information will help prevent you from making poor assumptions. Obviously, you should not trust your barber with advice about your health. But you can probably trust your family physician with this.
Of course even when your information is coming from a trusted expert, you always have the right to question things and investigate the facts for yourself. Remember that experts can make mistakes and sometimes different experts will have conflicting opinions. This is one reason people often get a second opinion before undergoing a major medical operation.
Don’t base big decisions on big assumptions
You may be thinking that you hear thousands of facts a week. Can you really be expected to check all of them just to be sure you don’t make any poor assumptions? And I agree with this sentiment. We have to be practical. Take into account whether the information is really important anyway. If there is a trivial fact that makes no influence on your life, then you don’t need to look it up since it is not important. But if you find yourself about to make a big decision based on a “fact” you have only heard from one source, stop yourself and try to verify the fact from at least one more reputable source first. It is possible that this act will save you from making a critical mistake. When making big decisions, if at all possible avoid basing them on big assumptions.
Test your assumptions
Again, we all make assumptions, but we should test them occasionally. Here is an example. Although it may seem simple,
it is illustrative of how you could test your own assumptions. Take the equation 1 + 1 = 2. It is an equation, which gives it an extra authority, so there is no need to question it, right? Well, let’s do it anyway for the sake of an example. Imagine this. You take one marble and another marble. You put them together and you get two. Then you take one apple and another apple. You put them together and you also get two. Then you take one glass of orange juice and another glass of orange juice. You put them side by side, and you also have two. So far the equation works perfectly. But then you decide to add the orange juices together by pouring one glass into the other. Now you have a glass with double the orange juice, and one empty glass. Apparently, 1 glass of orange juice + 1 glass of orange juice can sometimes just result in one even fuller glass of orange juice. Test your assumptions and you may find other interesting exceptions like this. (Of course, if we were to have measured just the volume, it would have doubled, perhaps from 100 mL + 100 mL = 200 mL)
As a fun fact, Alfred Whitehead and Bertrand Russel spent 360 pages in Principia Mathematica (not to be confused with Isaac Newton’s book) proving that 1 + 1 = 2. Although Kurt Gödel later refuted some key assumptions that were made in the work. Many of us might assume that the business of proving simple math operations would be simple, but philosophers and mathematicians have shown this to be more complex than it might appear.
Secret Principle #19 : Look at Problems and Situations Objectively
“Genius is simply the completest objectivity, i.e., the objective tendency of the mind…. Genius is the power of leaving one’s own interest, wishes and aims entirely out of sight, of entirely renouncing one’s own personality for a time, so as to remain pure knowing subject, [and gain a] clear vision of the world.”
