Geniuses: built not born
/By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.
Summary: Genius (master) = 1. Determination + 2. Obsessive interest in a topic + 3. Hard work + 4. Problem Solving Ability + 5. Making things
5. Making things = not just reading about something without actually actively creating eg making a Mustang. The equivalent in Physics would be only learning what others have done without writing a PhD thesis. IMO you should import others wisdom and then try to build on top.
IMO geniuses are built not born.
Can you go to school or university and learn something? Yes.
The more learning you have done the more you know? Yes.
What you can learn is a function of what you know. Ie the more you know the more you can learn.
What you can do is a function of what you have done. Ie the more you have done the more you can do.
Genetics determine things like your skin colour and height, do they determine ‘smarts’?
Are geniuses children also geniuses?
Eg are Bill Gates children geniuses? They are standard.
Eg are Ada Lovelace (widely regarded to have invented computer programs) children geniuses? They were standard.
Eg are Einstein's children genuses? They were standard.
The children of geniuses are typically ‘standard’. IE genius is not inherited (born), genius is built!
For all ‘geniuses’ I’ve looked at closely (be it academics like Danny Kahenman, musicians like Taylor Swift, sports people like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or Lewis Hamilton, entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Elon Musk, politicians like FDR, Chruchhill, Lee Quan Yew, etc) you find that at an early age they started actualising the ‘genius equation’. Ie doing all of 1. Determination + 2. Obsessive interest in a topic + 3. Hard work + 4. Problem Solving Ability + 5. Making things
If you have not played a video game at all and your friend has played for 100 hours who is likely to be better?
IMO no one is born good at anything. When you are born you can’t walk or talk.
In education there is a concept of ‘fixed vs growth mindsets’.
Fixed mindset = born good / bad at something
Growth mindset = you are good at the things you have cultivated
Someone is not good or bad at maths. Someone has ‘cultivated themselves at maths’ or some is ‘yet to cultivate themselves at maths’.
IMO anyone can be a genius, you just need to do the work.
The standard story society has vs what happens
IMO what happens: you start as a novice in everything, and then cultivate yourself to whatever point you want.
Be it maths ability, video game ability, violin, empathy, communication, creativity, problem solving, etc etc.
The standard story of society: someone is born a genius or not.
Ie that they start out already above a master!
I like to think that I get better at the things I put effort into!
Jingle: to become a genius you don’t need a wish granted by a genie, you need to muster the work to become a master!
I’m going to try to stop using the words ‘smart’, ‘dumb’... and ‘genius’
IMO ‘smart’ has heavy imbedded ‘fixed mindset’ connotations. Ie someone is born smart or dumb. I just don’t think this is the case.
Instead I’ll say ‘someone has cultivated themselves to be strong at empathy / maths / writing etc’, or someone is a ‘master’ at something. If you are a master you have done the work to master something!
Dumb = Novice
Smart = Expert
Genius = Master
Honestly, I think the human race would be much better if we got rid of the words ‘smart, dumb and genius’...
… so the human race is ‘dumb’ or having these words and I’m ‘smart’ for trying to stop using them ;P! Sorry, I might have just undone any good work I tried to do!
I’m using the word ‘genius’ because I think the standard story is that someone is born a genius or not and I’m wanting to juxtapose this implicit view vs one's ability to upgrade oneself!
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Details
This blog was inspired by this article titled ‘Genius’ (optional read)
I like most of it.
The bit i differ the most is the part about ‘natural ability’. I’m of the school of thought like Jo Boaler that natural ability is insignificant vs the upgrades one does to oneself. Effectively I believe that unless you have a significant hardware mental handicap the starting place we are birthed with is negligible vs the upgrades we do to our minds. Eg I remember when I struggled with 1.5x speed podcasts in 2011, now I can do 6x!
Earned secrets = you do the work to figure something out and discover a ‘secret’ that is ‘obvious after doing the work’.
In short innovation is not a lightbulb moment, it’s the product of the Genius equation :)
Earned secrets - Physics example
If you want to contribute to Physics you don’t just have a lightbulb moment and then suddenly have a breakthrough for joining Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
First you need to learn about Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
Another way of looking at things:
Model:
Secondary school level knowledge
University level knowledge
Masters level knowledge
PhD level knowledge
Comment:
IMO you can’t expect to add to physics knowledge with secondary school level physics knowledge.
Visualisation (that Daniel Tram showed me :) )
Earned secrets - Edrolo example:
I try to help improve education. As such I think it makes sense to try to do the work to try to become an ‘Expert’ / ‘Master’ in education research.
I now read a heap about education. I didn’t do much reading about education before 2016. I have no idea why. Honestly, it’s embarrassing. Maybe I had read a total of 10 books on education before 2016 and maybe 50 hours of podcasts. I now do this every 4-6 months!
To say that I think this reading has helped me is the understatement of the year. It’s basically the reason I’m writing this blog!
Honestly I’d say I was a ‘Novice’ / ‘Competent’ in education research in 2016. I think I’m around ‘Proficient’ / ‘Expert’ now.
I spend ~10 hours a week doing upgrades to myself, probably one third of this time is devoted to ‘education research’ at the moment. I’m assuming at some point this portion will go down, eg I don’t know if I need to get to ‘Master’ level. But right now learning more about education has made me want to learn more!
I think I’ve gone from decidedly average at my ability to build education products 4 years ago to building now what I consider to be seriously exciting stuff.
I think I’ve gotten wildly better at building education products through ‘the genius / master equation’. Ie i’ve built myself to be way better than before.
Master (genius) = 1. Determination + 2. Obsessive interest in a topic + 3. Hard work + 4. Problem Solving Ability + 5. Making things
The two key things that are different are in 2020 vs 2016 are:
“2. Obsessive interest in a topic”
I do 10 hours a week of 1x time human speed reading of education resources.
“The more you know about something the more interesting it is.”
Each hour I do is more interesting than the previous hour.
I now LOVE reading about education.
Here is a summary of the best education books I’ve read in the last 18 months (please note that about half my consumption is books and half podcasts, so there is much more going on than just these books. And these are the ones I finished)
Grouping
Grouping
Grouping
grouping
The Paideia Proposal - Mortimier Adler
The art of learning - Josh Wazedzki
Grouping
Grouping
Grouping
Grouping
When do I do this?
In the morning when I’m commuting to work and when I'm at the gym.
It’s at the point where I wake up now and can’t wait to get into a book or podcast on education :). Education = awesome!
It has made the gym fun! Gym now = good for my body + good for my mind :)
Just like in physics, I believe to add to a field the chance of doing so is wildly higher the more you know about the field.
I’m not saying you can’t add to education without reading things (aka importing the wisdom of others), I’m just saying the chance of doing so is wildly higher if you know more!
“4. Problem Solving Ability”
The best thing I’ve done to level up problem solving ability is write blogs like this all the time. I publish one externally a week but probably write the equivalent of 1-4x internally a week that are specifically to do something like ‘Year 7 Maths recipe’.
What does my daily practice look like?
Every morning I read 1x chapter from 2x separate books on education.
I also listen to 1-4x podcast episodes on education.
I find this wonderful to broaden my understanding of education, and not get tunnel vision. It also helps me ‘stand on the shoulders of others’. “It’s good to learn from your own mistakes, it’s better to learn from others.”
Without doing this reading I find that it is easy to overweight your current point of view and not constantly consider multiple perspectives.
In some respects:
Reading = constantly considering multiple points of view
Not reading = having only the one point of view / solution playing in your head which often leads to tunnel vision / confirmation bias.
“I’m not special, I’m just passionately curious.” Einstein
Master (nee Genius) equation = 1. Determination + 2. Obsessive interest in a topic + 3. Hard work + 4. Problem Solving Ability + 5. Making things
“I’m not special, I’m just [obsessively interested in a topic].”
As above I don’t think there is such a thing as genius, just people who have done a lot of cultivating of themselves in certain areas… some of whom become masters!
‘Masters / geniuses’ are people who have cultivated themselves to be extraordinary extent in an area. This is done through systematic upgrades. The sooner you start the better, most ‘geniuii’ start close to birth so it looks like there were different from the get go.
I have been trying to hard core upgrade myself with respect to education for ~3-4x years now (before I was doing upgrades in things like ‘startups’ and ‘problem solving’).
I discovered the love of learning when I was 22 (post university :( ). I wish I discovered it when I was 2 like some people did! Imagine how much cool stuff I could know by now!
The more you know about something the more interesting it is.
Purpose = Find a way to make the world better => take on responsibility => get meaning => have happiness
I’ve found that reading on education has wildly improved my ability to find ways to improve education.
… educating myself has massively increased my ability to improve education :)
I think that everyone at Edrolo should read lots about education :)!
Purpose done well is fun fun fun.
Reading about education has gone from ‘mildly interesting’ to ‘get out, that is awesome!’.
If you only take away one thing: I think anyone can become a ‘genius’ / ‘master’
I don’t think anyone is born a genius. I think geniuses (masters) are built not born.
IMO don't worry about what you are good at. Worry about what you want to be good at.
IMO the word ‘genius’ has imbedded fixed mindset connotations :(.
“Acquiring wisdom is a moral duty.” Munger.
Wisdom = valuable knowledge
Valuable knowledge = knowledge that can help improve the world.
Becoming wise = Genius (master) equation = 1. Determination + 2. Obsessive interest in a topic + 3. Hard work + 4. Problem Solving Ability + 5. Making things
Becoming wise = awesome scrumptious fun
One MECE I have for life:
5 days a week of purpose
1 day a week of peace
1 day a week of play
Becoming a valuable master practitioner (ie someone who helps improve the world) is IMO a really good strategy for a quality outcome in ‘purpose’ time.
IMO anyone can become a master (genius). IMO there is a strong reason why you should want to do the work to become a master.
Master = Genius = Munger = Kegan’s Self-Transforming = Plato’s Philosopher Kings