by I C Robledo
How to Apply the Principle
Keep control over important resources
Keep as much control as you can over the major resources in your life. For example: time, money, important material and resources for your field, your personal health, etc. Be cautious how these things are cared for, used, and spent, because these resources are incredibly important. For example, if you don’t use your time appropriately, then you won’t have the freedom or control to make good choices. If you spent your money on unnecessary things, again you may lose your freedom of action, unable to pay for the things you truly need. Rather than being able to take a job you like for slightly less pay, you may feel forced to take a higher paying job you dislike because you have immense debts that need to be paid.
Increase your own freedom of action, and restrict the opponent’s
When you are in a competition where only one side can win, you should consider ways to improve your own freedom of action, and ways to restrict the opponent’s freedom of action. You can also add constraints for them to deal with. In battle, one example of adding restrictions to your enemy would be to control their sources of food and water, which would cause their army to fall apart, thus winning without bloodshed.
As reported at Romanmilitary.net:
The Romans realized that with the training a soldier requires, his food, his armor, his armaments, his salary, and his honorarium (paid to those who received honorable discharges), a soldier was a very expensive proposition, and was far too valuable a resource to waste. Therefore, the best tactic would be the one that had the most effect without exposing the troops to unnecessary risk. Their answer was to cut off their opponent from his resources. Armies run on their stomachs and equipment, and both require regular supplies. Without a steady supply of food and water, an army will starve or dehydrate, killing or demoralizing the troops. Eventually, the army would fall apart.
For the curious, the Romans accomplished this in one of three ways. They would attack the resources themselves, interrupt the supplies en route, or initiate a siege (e.g., surrounding and attacking the city).
Notice that such actions by the Romans or other armies could have two major effects. It increases the freedom of the friendly forces, giving them energy and resources to gain strength (if they manage to get a hold of the resources themselves), and it reduces the freedom of the forces they are invading, because they will have less supplies and resources to live off of.
You probably aren’t at war. But to apply the concept in your own life, you can re-envision a competition or game you are involved with. Then, make your goal to increase your freedom of movement and options, and to restrict the freedom and options of your opponents. This can apply to one on one physical competitions like wrestling, to larger team competitions like with soccer, or even with playing board games such as chess, checkers, risk, or monopoly, etc.
Secret Principle #29: Focus on a Big Problem, or a Network of Related Problems
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
– Alexander Graham Bell, scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.
Geniuses Who Applied the Principle
Albert Einstein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John von Neumann, Isaac Newton
Description of the Principle
The most brilliant minds tend to identify a big problem that they want to tackle, and then they move forward on trying to solve it with all of their intellectual strength. Of course, sometimes when you have a very large problem, there are actually many smaller problems that must be solved along the way to the big one. Whether you focus on one very large problem, or prefer to focus on smaller problems that are interrelated, the point is that you will have a firm focus in one area.
Even if you study a given field, this principle doesn’t simply mean to study problems within that one field. It goes deeper than this. It means to focus on problems that are related in some way. For example, an archaeologist who studies ancient cultures may choose to research them based on geography. If he chooses to focus on cultures in Central and South America, for example, he may choose to study the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans. This would be simpler and more effective than jumping around to different continents to study different unrelated cultures.
Notice that despite this principle, some of the geniuses mentioned in this book have been greatly accomplished in a variety of fields (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). However, for the majority, they chose to focus mostly on one area, or a network of related areas. For example, a writer may have written novels, as well as short stories and possibly some poetry or screenwriting. A filmmaker will tend to focus on related skill sets such as directing, producing, editing films, and possibly photography. A scientist may be well versed in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and some biology.
Consider John von Neumann, a man who contributed to a great amount of fields, such as physics, computer science, statistics, and economics. But when you look at the fields he worked in, we can see a pattern. All of the areas he pursued were related in some way to mathematics. He was a man of numbers, symbols, and equations. He focused entirely on a network of related problems that dealt with math.
Benefits of the Principle
The benefit of focusing on problems that are interrelated is you will be able to learn more efficiently. Even if you study mathematics and you decide that you want to expand, you will be much more efficient in your progress if you decide to branch out into physics and computer science, as opposed to if you choose to branch out into botany and sculpture, for example. To go into related domains will still take work and learning, but you will have the core knowledge base which will help you learn new things more easily. You won’t have the disadvantage of someone who has no knowledge of the topic whatsoever. Of course, when you do branch out too far (e.g., from botany to sculpture), you will start out again as a complete novice. Your knowledge of botany will provide little help to you, unless of course you decide to sculpt plants.
If you decide that you want to resist this principle, and use Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous Renaissance man, as an example, realize that he was not satisfied to stay on the surfaces of a new area. He immersed himself deeply into everything new that he undertook. He didn’t dabble in art, science, and engineering. Instead, he took the time to master them all. If you choose the path of da Vinci, realize that it will take great persistence to achieve mastery in multiple and unrelated areas. Although this is an honorable path, it is not the advised one. It is difficult enough to achieve mastery in one area, and to promote yourself as being more worthy than others with similar skills. The world today is hypercompetitive, and so it isn’t good enough to be good. You have to be great. Those with a complete focus have the advantage in achieving greatness.
Another benefit is that this is probably the most efficient path toward genius. Let’s take a big picture overview of some of the names mentioned in this book thus far. Even at age 16, Albert Einstein was gazing into a mirror, wondering what it would look like if he were traveling the speed of light. He worked at a patent office for many years because it allowed him the freedom to focus on his work in physics problems. Even on the days up to his death, he was focused on making progress with his unified field theory. Bobby Fischer’s life, from the age of six, was essentially all about chess. If you weren’t playing or talking about chess, he wasn’t concerned with it. Prince played 27 instruments on his debut album, For You. His life revolved around his music. All of them had profound focus on a key area. For Einstein, it was physics, for Fischer, chess, and for Prince, music. Most brilliant geniuses in this book, or elsewhere, have followed a similar pattern.
How to Apply the Principle
Master one field at a time
Tackle one subject at a time. Make sure you fully understand what you are doing before you move on to another topic. This can take great patience. It can tak
e years. Many people are inclined to get bored, and will jump back and forth between different fields, but the way to make a lasting masterful impact in a domain is to focus completely in one area. Some people want to quantify the time or effort required. They may say it takes ten years, or 10,000 hours, or something else. But there isn’t necessarily one point where you wake up and you are an expert. Also the time and effort required will vary from person to person, and from field to field. It probably takes longer to master quantum physics than it does to master the art of juggling.
Commit to one project at a time
Avoid abandoning projects midway. Commit to finishing and learning something from your endeavors. Often, we want to quit because a task is difficult and we feel unprepared. But if we push through and finish a task, we are in a position to take our learning to a higher level. It is obviously a huge commitment, to do what many of the most brilliant minds have done and focus on one key area for a majority of one’s life. But it is a big start to stay focused on one project to its completion. You will severely limit your ability to learn and grow if you consistently quit when a task becomes difficult. This is actually the time when it is most important to push through, to keep going despite the challenge. Remember that surely many geniuses had doubts and wanted to quit, but they chose to keep on going anyway. If they can do it you can too. Don’t expect to be a star when you try something new. It takes time.
Concluding Thoughts
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
– William Shakespeare, English poet, playwright, and actor.
Stay Humble
I want to tell you a story about the importance of humility.
I saw a video the other day where a man was being harassed by two others. It was late at night. There was no one else around. The lone man insisted that he did not want to fight, and he told the other two to go away. They approached him, closer and closer. The lone man stood tall, put his hands out front ready to fight since there seemed no way out. When one of the aggressors got too close, the lone man easily dodged attacks and managed to get some solid punches in. Shaken up, the two aggressors backed up a bit, but they still would not leave. The lone man warned them that they needed to leave or he would hurt them seriously. He said “I’m not joking.” The two men didn’t seem to care, and the fight continued. The two men lunged forward, but the lone man was too quick at avoiding the attacks, and he hit them in return once again. At one point, the lone man even grabbed a Dolly, (e.g., a metal tool used to carry furniture), and he used it as a weapon, and also to protect himself. The two aggressors became more cautious and backed up a bit, but they would not leave. Eventually, the police did arrive to arrest the two men who started the fight.
The lone man clearly knew how to fight and take care of himself, but he was humble. He didn’t want to fight anyone. He didn’t feel the need to show his superiority over others. Most of all, it seemed that he didn’t want to hurt anyone. As I watched the video, I was under the impression that the lone man could have killed these two men if he had truly desired it. But he only injured them to protect himself. He never hurt them anymore than he needed to.
A similar analogy can hold for the intellect. Someone who has just come upon these secrets principles may want to show superiority over others. Perhaps someone could even be tempted to bully people intellectually. But you should know that the truly brilliant minds in history did not behave this way. They were aware that there is always more to learn, more to understand, and more progress to make. They also understood that everyone starts somewhere. To be temporarily ignorant is acceptable as long as you have the desire to learn. So if you want to brag, brag about how much progress you’ve made over where you used to be. But there is no need to compare yourself so much with others.
I have been lucky. I have had the luxury to always have my needs taken care of so I could focus on bettering my mind. Not everyone is this fortunate, and I do not look down on anyone for it. Rather, if I can help you to learn and apply these principles, which you may never have otherwise had access to, then I am happy to do so.
Essentially, I am saying that it is important for us to use The Secret Principles of Genius for good. Use your intellectual energy to improve yourself, to solve your own problems, a friend’s problem, problems at work, or even to focus on larger world issues. This is infinitely more important than appearing to be more intelligent than someone else.
Bringing it All Together
Very briefly, this section will establish how all of the principles can work together to help you in your journey to meet your genius potential.
In the first section of The Secret Principles of Genius, we learned the importance of personal qualities. For instance, pay attention to your senses (Principle #1), as this is the way your brain receives all of its information which it then interprets. It is also vital to keep your curiosity or to reawaken it (Principle #2). Never lose this, because it is the spark of the genius mind. It is the starter in your vehicle that propels you forward on the road to genius. Without that spark, your mind cannot take you anywhere. Also, you must persevere (Principle #8). Train yourself to keep moving forward even when obstacles come your way. Do not back down at the first sign of trouble. Those who achieved great intellectual accomplishments fought through great struggles as well. It wasn’t easy for them, so don’t expect it to be easy for yourself. Always have the highest standards for yourself and your work (Principle #7). Genius isn’t born in mediocrity, but through a desire to meet the highest level of quality possible. Ultimately, you will have to put in the work (Principle #9). Even the most accomplished geniuses of the world were not able to create their ideas, inventions, and works of art through thought alone. The reason we remember the most brilliant people is often because they put a gifted mind to work diligently so we could bear the fruits of their labor.
In the second section of the book, we discovered the importance of learning. A genius mind cannot get anywhere without some level of knowledge. First, work on your core foundation (Principle #11). Learn the things that are important for every educated citizen to know. Understand basic math, science, history, geography, language skills, the classics, and so forth. When your core knowledge and skills are well developed, you are ready to start building expertise in one area that interests you the most (Principle #12). You can pour your energy into this. But it will always be useful to have knowledge in other areas too. Put some of your time into learning new things happening in other areas. For the brilliant mind, learning is critically important. A good way to be sure that you are truly learning and digesting the information is to take notes and look back on them periodically (Principle #13). Also, recall that you don’t have to go alone on your journey. Many masters before you have walked a similar path, and you can learn immensely from them (Principle #14). Ultimately, it will pay off to turn learning into something that happens as a normal part of your life. This is the way of the genius.
In the third section, we learned the importance of using key strategies for thinking and problem-solving. One of the core tools of a genius mind is to remain as objective as possible (Principle #19). They conduct a search for the truth by trying to forget about their own desires, or their own wishes for a certain outcome. Great minds like Albert Einstein also emphasized the importance of keeping things simple (Principle #20). You should be able to explain your big ideas even to a child. This will help to communicate your ideas, but also to make sure that you fully understand everything about them. It is also important to think about and understand the big patterns in your field (Principle #22). Know the general expectations and trends, and then it will be much easier for you to identify anomalies. Anomalies are the things that do not fit into the expected pattern (Principle #23). Pay special attention to anomalies, as they are often ignored, misunderstood, or assumed to be errors. In fact, they can lead to a big breakthrough, as has happened often throughout history. One of the most important principles appears
to emerge as we apply other principles in the book. This is the principle of increasing your freedom of action. All intelligent entities (e.g., from humans, to animals, to robots) will keep their own level of freedom as high as possible, while restricting the freedom of any opponents (Principle #28). And finally, the surest path to genius is to focus on one big key problem, or a network of interrelated problems (Principle #29). This is the path that the majority of geniuses have taken for millennia.
The secret principles of genius all work together in some way, which is what makes them powerful. For them to be useful to you, you will need to put them into action. I would recommend choosing two or three from each section of the book and starting with those. It can be overwhelming to attempt to apply them all at once. But if you apply a few to begin with, you will be able to start on your path toward genius right away.
The path that was once blocked, has been opened. Now there is nothing holding you back from reaching your genius potential.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read The Secret Principles of Genius. I hope that you found the information useful. Just remember that a key part of the learning process is putting what you read into practice.
Before you go, I want to invite you to pick up your free copy of Step Up Your Learning: Free Tools to Learn Almost Anything. All you have to do is click this link (or type it in your browser):
http://bit.ly/Robledo
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