The creator of Yale University's popular "Genius Course" examines how fourteen key habits of genius, from curiosity and creative maladjustment to rebelliousness and obsession, have been effectively demonstrated by history's most influential and change-promoting intellectuals
An unusually engaging book on the forces that fuel originality across fields.
-Adam Grant Looking at the 14 key traits of genius, from curiosity to creative
maladjustment to obsession, Professor Craig Wright, creator of Yale
University's popular Genius Course, explores what we can learn from brilliant
minds that have changed the world. Einstein. Beethoven. Picasso. Jobs. The
word genius evokes these iconic figures, whose cultural contributions have
irreversibly shaped society. Yet Beethoven could not multiply. Picasso
couldn't pass a 4th grade math test. And Jobs left high school with a 2.65
GPA. What does this say about our metrics for measuring success and
achievement today? Why do we teach children to behave and play by the rules,
when the transformative geniuses of Western culture have done just the
opposite? And what is genius, really? Professor Craig Wright, creator of Yale
University's popular Genius Course, has devoted more than two decades to
exploring these questions and probing the nature of this term, which is deeply
embedded in our culture. In The Hidden Habits of Genius, he reveals what we
can learn from the lives of those we have dubbed geniuses, past and present.
Examining the lives of transformative individuals ranging from Charles Darwin
and Marie Curie to Leonardo Da Vinci and Andy Warhol to Toni Morrison and Elon
Musk, Wright identifies more than a dozen drivers of genius-characteristics
and patterns of behavior common to great minds throughout history. He argues
that genius is about more than intellect and work ethic-it is far more
complex-and that the famed eureka moment is a Hollywood fiction. Brilliant
insights that change the world are never sudden, but rather, they are the
result of unique modes of thinking and lengthy gestation. Most importantly,
the habits of mind that produce great thinking and discovery can be actively
learned and cultivated, and Wright shows us how. This book won't make you a
genius. But embracing the hidden habits of these transformative individuals
will make you more strategic, creative, and successful, and, ultimately,
happier. show less