Stumbled Upon: Thinking Like A Genius

[Zero]

I stumbled upon a site about "thinking like a genius".

I found it kind of funny (kind of sad) that it was so well reviewed and liked by the general community. That tells me that most people don't function like that and I always find it isolating to be reminded of how impractical 'genius' is.

http://www.studygs.net/genius.htm

The one in regards to Learning and managing time would be more useful to me.

On a large scale, looking at the rest of the population. I don't understand the merit of this... I find it entirely trivial, trying to teach people to think like one type of person. Useless.

Spoon:
Do you think like a genius?
Being different from most?
How to put 'genius' to practical use?
What's the use of it anyway?
What do you find useful advice?
The world only needs one great genius at a time(?).

 

[Felan]

Assuming these are questions:

Do you think like a genius?
If the link describes genius-thinking, then yeah I use a number of those approaches intuitively.

Being different from most?
I'm just myself, which coincidentally seems to be viewed as odd by many/most.

How to put 'genius' to practical use?
I've never been that lacking for use, so this seems an odd question to me.

What's the use of it anyway?
Every breathe you take causes you to lose weight by chemical process of absorbing oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide.

What do you find useful advice?
Find work and a life that you enjoy, for itself.

The world only needs one great genius at a time(?).
Hmm, not at all. Historically they seem ever-present to me. To me they are like steam from boiling water, how much is present is more a function of how hot the water is and certain amount of heat is needed for genius to spring up.

Taking a look at say Arab culture there was a period when they were the height of scientific thinking and enlightenment. Then their culture turned from science to an almost exclusively religious path of thinking. They fell from their place at the top as the water cooled and the steam vanished.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to me that a path of religious thinking produces the same quality of great thinkers that scientific thinking does. Religious thinking seems more akin to a space heater than a burner. But I'm probably being obtruse.

 

[snowqueen]

Do you think like a genius?

If that list is what it means to think like a genius - then yes - I do all of those things pretty consistently. But I don't think I have a high enough level of knowledge and intelligence for it to translate into genius. My father was a genius - most people I've met who knew him have said so.

Being different from most?

Yeah - I'm used to it now. Most people like me so it's not so bad

How to put 'genius' to practical use?

I have finally managed to do that through my work as a lecturer and researcher and I'm a lot happier.

What's the use of it anyway?

The world always needs new perspectives because it is constantly changing. If people always thought the same then we'd all perish pretty soon. This kind of thinking promotes adaptation to new challenges that are completely unexpected or to produce solutions which are counterintuitive but work.

What do you find useful advice?

Do what you love and you will love what you do
Whatever terrible thing your child is doing right now, they will grow out of it (that;s a bonus item)

The world only needs one great genius at a time(?).

Bollocks! We;d be so lonely we'd die!!!!

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

Do you think like a genius?

a bit, maybe half of them. it is my opinion that God is in the contrast, not the details. but as snowqueen says, i most definitely don't have anywhere near the amount of intellectual power for any of these techniques to work for me (dammit)

Being different from most?

yeah, very, and all my life.

How to put 'genius' to practical use?

i am still discovering this, from what i currently believe it is to just think and think and think, then let it happen, to be almost unconscious to what you are creating, and just let the 'higher power' use you, dictate. (be it subconscious, holy spirit, separate entity of any kind...)
(of course i am probably talking more of artistic genius)

What's the use of it anyway?

of genius? well, it is...well, i think a total freeing of the mind is more important than Genius, but also it usually takes a genius to succeed in freeing the mind, or even desire too.

What do you find useful advice?

"if at first an idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it"
"no man can describe how ideas come to him"
"there are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe them"

The world only needs one great genius at a time(?).

no, it does not. if we are to think a genius as something more than just a person of high intelligence, and think there are only a few true geniuses in the world, and that geniuses are people that do something new, or something greater than any artist/thinker before him, one who breaks new ground - then i think that the world can't have enough of them. but really it is possible no man is a genius, he is merely a man who was lucky to stumble across the Eureka moment.


in fact, extra question, based on what i just said...

What is Genius? What should be considered Genius?

 

[Sapphire Harp]

A number of people have called me a genius in my life... Oddly enough, the only one I can remember clearly is an INTJ who threw me out of her life several months later... It usually happens when I've illuminated other thought paths for people... "Here's a step-ladder so you can get out of your box."

At this point, I'm pretty sure earning the historical title of 'genius' only comes from impressive problem-solving... usually in a very focused area. Geniuses move humanity up three or four rungs of a single ladder... If their efforts are diffuse, it's rare that they can be recognized...

Honestly, I'm trying to contribute here, but I'm not succeeding. Mostly, I wanted to tie this in to a thread I posted a long, long time ago... The New Yorker hosted a talk about the role of Genius in the forecastable future... Very relevant to what this is discussing.

(Direct Video Link...) ~ (Old Thread Link...)
​

Taking a look at say Arab culture there was a period when they were the height of scientific thinking and enlightenment. Then their culture turned from science to an almost exclusively religious path of thinking. They fell from their place at the top as the water cooled and the steam vanished.

Didn't their descent have a lot to do with the ecological decay of their part of the world, too? I think I remember that suggested in Guns, Germs, and Steel... At a guess, the close-mindedness came later, when times grew harder for them.
​

 

[Zero]

Interesting responses.

Sometimes I can't believe the random on a whim threads I make. Note to self about spoon, INTPs like spoons. These days I generalise everything.

My spoon in regards to there being one genius at a time has to do with the mainstream fame. Those who's names we knew by time we were in elementary school. This 'thinking like a genius' site seems to focus on only one sort of genius and encourages... inventing?

Of course, I can't claim to 'think like a genius'. No one's ever considered me a genius. If someone said that to me, I'd have to give them a pained laugh. As far as the traits listed on the site, I do a few of those things. Once again, it seems to point to the fact that I'm defective. That's somewhat bothersome.

For me it's almost a shame to be an INTP, since I don't seem to share the advantages of being one. It's not that I haven't tried to figure it out, many times over. I must be something else, but what else, only to find there is nothing else and I'm rather stuck.

Seducer, it seems I can relate with you the most. Considering what I just said about myself, I apologise if that's an insult. I'm observing that I understand your answers the most.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

Zero, you are offending yourself by comparing you to me

 

[Zero]

Er, um, it would be socially impolite to argue with that.

So, Nah. You flatter me.

 

[Death]

What society deems as genius is probably more on hard work and resilience (according to Malcolm Gladwell,you have to 10000hours on something to be really good at it.).

As an INTP,hardworking is probably not going to be on my resume,but I rather be anything than be a pure genius.

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

I have most of those traits except productivity....guess I will never be considered a genius....just lazy with his head stuck beyond left field

 

[Cavallier]

After reading your thread Zero and the responses I wonder if perhaps we're (not us as a forum so much as us as a culture/species) thinking about this the wrong way...or at least perhaps, we could be thinking about this in a different way:

I've noticed in school that many people can't figure out a problem because they spend so much of their time just telling themselves they can't fix the problem. I don't mean that people berate themselves (although they do this too) so much as they stare at the problem saying, "I can't figure it out!". Instead, they could better use their energy by simply turning the problem around and using problem solving techniques.

"Maybe if I did this...or this...or put this here..." as apposed to "why can't I figure this out? I CAN'T figure this out". It's like they are building their own special psychological wall between themselves and the answer to the problem.

Also, when it comes to solving problems I think much of issue lies in the fact that (at least in the US) our school systems don't really teach "troubleshooting" as a skill. If you go to a technical school you pick up this skill but the average Joe often doesn't ever come across the basic principles.

*Now for a nifty wiki reference*

Trouble Shooting is a form of problem solving most often applied to repair of failed products or processes. It is a logical, systematic search for the source of a problem so that it can be solved, and so the product or process can be made operational again. Troubleshooting is needed to develop and maintain complex systems where the symptoms of a problem can have many possible causes. Troubleshooting requires identification of the malfunction(s) or symptoms within a system. Then, experience is commonly used to generate possible causes of the symptoms. Determining which cause is most likely is often a process of elimination - eliminating potential causes of a problem. Finally, troubleshooting requires confirmation that the solution restores the product or process to its working state.

Much of this sounds a lot like the "Thinking Like A Genius" site. If we taught kids how to systematically work their way through problems through the use of troubleshooting techniques we'd all have a few more "geniuses" as this article seems to describe them. I don't know how many times I've stood in a circle of my peers and explained to them what a "process of elimination" means: "Well, have we figured out what exactly is going wrong? Okay, what have we tried and not tried? Has anybody thought to try...".

I wonder if most of the kids out there who have trouble with math and science have trouble because they simply haven't been taught good troubleshooting techniques.

-breaks down soap box about failing school systems and stomps off to the Shouting Club Thread...

 

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

If the educational system was efficient you could teach calculus to a 3rd grader, the educational system has a very long way to go. I think it has something to do with setting standards. People look at the standard and say, I'm not supposed to do this until this time, or I should do that before this time. The other problem is schools don't teach kids real life skills or how to relate what they learn to real life until its pretty much too late if at all. At least that's how it seems to me. Everyone seems to just wanna barely get by. That's how I used to be when I was just a lazy slave to the majority mentality. I believed most of the propaganda. Drugs were ALL bad, and I had no taste in music. All I could do was just copy people. No thinking for myself. I had no concept of the real world, or how easy it really is to fail at life. I know, success/failure's definition varies person to person, but not being able to work a 1/2 decent job and function on one's own seems like a lose to me. Teaching people how to think for themselves and to question things should definitely be more encouraged as well. Society does not seem to value true thought in a very positive manner.