How to Become a Genius - Part Two
(Continuation of the page: How
to Become a Genius)
To continue, here are the four steps that will help you become
a genius - or at least help you become more powerful in your
thinking.
1. Encourage an insatiable curiosity.
Whether we look at the life Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci,
Stephen Hawking, one thing is clear: They all had or have an
unending curiosity. You do not stumble upon many unprecedented
insights if you get bored after a few minutes of investigating
something. Curiosity drives us to explore deeply the world around
us. Allow yourself to wonder about things. Make questioning of
everything a habit, by consciously doing it until it is automatic.
2. Open your mind to changes.
It may be convenient to label and categorize everything, and
it is comforting to some to have answers and beliefs that go
unchallenged, but this is not the path of genius. Open your mind
and embrace the uncertainty and ambiguity of life and of the
world. Yes, we must assume certain truths, but we can be ready
to drop them as better ones come along - and then perhaps drop
those in time. Challenge your own thinking. Stephen Hawking proved
that information was lost when something enters a black hole,
and then, decades longer, proved he was wrong. The second insight
would not have been possible to a man who clings to certainty
and close his mind to new and conflicting ideas.
3. Play
In part, playing is a way to encourage your curiosity. But
it has other benefits as well. When you play around with ideas
or even play around with models or inventions, you test your
thinking against reality. And just as a kitten learns hunting
skills by playing, you develop and exercise your thinking skills
by exposing them to real-life tests and situations. Playfulness
also encourages the combining of various mental abilities and
skills and ideas.
Play and humor are also useful for "loosening up"
your thinking. If you are too uptight, you tend to be less open
to new ideas. For example, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard
Feynman was known for being playful and having a great sense
of humor. He also played bongo, was a practical joker, deciphered
hieroglyphs, picked locks, and was generally regarded as an eccentric
and a free spirit. His playful approach to his many pursuits
probably made him much more open to "crazy" thoughts
that gave new insight.
4. Learn specific techniques for creative thinking.
Just as some people are born with more intellectual ability,
some are probably born with a brain that has more creative tendencies.
But anyone can learn specific techniques for generating new ideas,
creatively solving problems, digging deeper into the nature of
things and having more insight. The Site
Map for this website has dozens of pages detailing these
creativity practices and techniques. You can also find many in
my e-book:
Problem Solving Power
And in my upcoming paperback:
The Thousand
Mile Hole
(To be published soon)
To become a genius, or at least to become more creatively
and intellectually powerful than you already are, you have to
make the suggestions above into habits. Let your curiosity be
an everyday thing, open your mind to new ideas continually, play
daily (both mentally and physically), and practice special thinking
techniques until they are an unconscious part of your mental
routine.
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