Welcome
to the 21st century
When
the physicist Feyman was stuck on a problem, he would invent new thinking
strategies. He felt that the secret to his genius was his ability to
disregard how past thinkers thought about problems and, instead, invent
new ways to think.
Can anybody be a
genius? Probably not. But we can certainly learn from those that we
label as genius' and apply those principles to our own thinking in order
to maximise our and our students potential.
What
was the most significant contribution to science from Ernest Rutherford?
In an excellent
article by Michael Michalko featured on the New Horizons (http://www.newhorizons.org/)
website, Michael presents eight descriptions of strategies that are
common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art and
industry throughout history. The full article appears at the website
http://www.newhorizons.org/wwart_michalko1.html
Strategy
1
Geniuses look at problems in many different ways. 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 towards his usual
way of seeing things.
Strategy
2
Geniuses make their thoughts visible. The explosion of creativity in
Renaissance was intimately tied to the recording and conveying a vast
knowledge in drawings, graphs, and diagrams as in the renowned diagrams
of da Vinci and Galileo. In fact Einstein believed that words and numbers,
as they are written or spoken, do not play a significant role in the
thinking process.
Strategy
3
Geniuses produce. A distinguishing characteristic of genius is immense
productivity. Thomas Edison held 1093 patents, still the record. Mozart
produced more than 600 pieces of music. Einstein is best known for his
paper on relativity, but he published 248 other papers. In a study of
over 2000 scientists through history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University
of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced
not only great works, but also more "bad" ones. Out of their
massive quantity of work came quality.
Strategy
4
geniuses make novel combinations. In his 1989 book scientific genius,
Simonton suggests that geniuses form more novel combinations than the
merely talented.
Strategy
5
Geniuses force relationships: if one particular style of thought stands
out about creative genius, it is that ability to make juxtapositions
between dissimilar subjects. This facility to connect the unconnected
enables them to see things others do not. Samuel Morse was stumped trying
to figure out how to produce a telegraphic signal strong enough to transmit
coast to coast. One day he saw tied horses being exchanged at a relay
station and forced a connection between relay stations for horses and
strong signals. The solution was to give the travelling signal periodical
boosts of power.
Strategy
6
Geniuses think in opposites. Physicist and philosopher David Bohm believed
geniuses were able to think different thoughts because they can tolerate
ambivalence between opposites or two incompatible subjects. Physicist
Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend
your thought and your mind moves to a new level. (Appliance example
radio/toaster combinations)
Strategy
7
Geniuses think metaphorically. Aristotle considered metaphor a sign
of genius, believing that the individual that has the capacity to perceive
resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together
was a person of special gifts.
Strategy
8
Geniuses prepare themselves for chance. Whenever we attempt to do something
and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle
of creative accident. We may ask ourselves why we have failed to do
what we intended, which is a reasonable question. But the creative accident
provokes a different question: what have we done? Answering that question
in a novel, unexpected way is the essential creative act. B. F. Skinner
emphasised the first principle of scientific methodologists: when you
find something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
Rutherford
and J.J. Thompson trained 17 other Nobel winning scientists!
