1. Look at problems in many different ways, and
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?"
-
The practice of genius
(Guide blog #1)
Adapted with permission from:
Michalko, Michael,
Thinking Like a Genius: Eight strategies
used by the super creative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein
and Edison (New
Horizons for Learning) as seen at www.newhorizons.org/wwart_michalko1.html,
(June 15, 1999)
This
article first appeared in THE FUTURIST, May 1998
Michael Michalko is the author of
Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity),
ThinkPak (A Brainstorming Card Set), and
Cracking
Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Geniuses (Ten Speed
Press, 1998).
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