The Hidden Habits Of Genius by Craig Wright

The Hidden Habits Of Genius by Craig Wright is a self-improvement / biography book published in 2020.

After examining people’s genes such as Einstein, Mozart, and Da Vinci, scientists haven’t found evidence of anything biologically predicting future success. Genius involves the complicated expression of too many hidden personal traits to be reduced to a single anomaly in our brain or chromosomes. As Wright describes, “How an exceptional individual’s traits work together to produce genius remains a mystery.

What these traits are and how they can be cultivated is the subject of this book.”
After studying dozens of commonly agreed “geniuses” from Mozart and Shakespeare to Picasso and Da Vinci, Yale professor Craig Wright isolated the shared qualities between these great individuals and created The Hidden Habits Of Genius based on his findings.

The Hidden Target

“A person of talent hits a target that no one else can hit; a person of genius hits a target that no one else can see” – Schopenhauer

• Genius ≠ Talent
  • Elite performance = performing, refining existing knowledge
  • Practice makes the old perfect
  • Geniuses invent something new & transformative
• Genius = person of extraordinary mental powers whose insights change society in some significant way for good, across cultures and time

Gift or Hard Work?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree…” – Einstein

• Genius = Nature + Nurture
  • Born with abilities, but talent alone insufficient
  • Most raised in ordinary homes, not elite environments
• Standard metrics miss creativity, intuition, emotional depth, vision
  • Geniuses often break convention, see unique connections
  • Not always high academic achievers
• Examples
  • Beethoven – couldn’t multiply
  • Picasso – visual thinker, saw letters/numbers as images
  • Steve Jobs – 2.65 GPA
  • Walt Disney – struggled in school, napped in class

Genius and Gender

• Genius is not gendered
  • Women have the same intellectual potential as men
  • Ignoring half the world’s intellectual capacity is stupid
• Women face systemic barriers
  • Stereotypes, biases, and unfavorable work environments
  • Disadvantages in everyday processes (e.g., job applications)
  • Fewer female role models and mentors, especially in STEM
• Historical disadvantages
  • Women couldn’t vote in the US until 1920
  • 1960: Harvard had one female professor; Yale and Princeton had none
  • Women barred from Princeton and Yale undergrad until 1969
  • Harvard merged with its female sister school only in 1999

The Prodigy Bubble

• Most geniuses were never prodigies; most prodigies never become geniuses
  • Geniuses create; prodigies mimic and perform exceptionally early
• Don’t try to train your child
  • Foster an independent, questioning mind
  • Develop capacity to handle failure
• Example: Albert Einstein
  • No teacher would write a recommendation for him
  • He disliked teachers and they disliked him

Childlike Imagination

“The secret of geniuses is to carry the spirit of the child into old age.” – Aldous Huxley

• “Growing up” often reduces creative imagination
• Innovation requires creativity and imagination
  • Jeff Bezos: Childlike ability needed to avoid being trapped by expertise
• Examples
  • Mary Shelley: At 18 with no formal education, thought up Frankenstein
  • Albert Einstein: Envisioned imaginary moving objects first, then later tried to apply formulas

A Lust for Learning

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education “ – Mark Twain

• Curiosity + Lifelong Learning
  • Albert Einstein: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
  • Michelangelo, Ben Franklin, Beethoven, Picasso stopped at elementary school
  • Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Musk dropped out but learned what they needed
• Da Vinci
  • To-do list had themes of urban planning, hydraulics, war, astronomy, math, etc
  • Experimented across multiple fields (anatomy to physics)
  • Discoveries centuries before modern science (heart’s chambers, arteriosclerosis)

Your Missing Piece

• Geniuses can’t accept the world as described (some to the dark side of obsession)
• Newton
  • Isolated himself for days
  • Ate little, sometimes stood for long periods to maintain “flow”
  • Pursued problems obsessively until resolved
• Edison
  • Worked 18-hour days, rarely leaving his desk
  • Registered 1,093 patents over his lifetime

Leverage Your Difference

• Roughly 1/3 of geniuses studied experienced significant mental health challenges
• Van Gogh → hospitalized for mental illness, cut off his ear, suicide at age 37
• Virginia Woolf → schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, drowned herself at age 59
• Beethoven → increasing deafness from a young age, attempted suicide multiple times

Rebels

• Geniuses commonly challenge rules and authority
  • Pursue truth even if it disrupts societal expectations
  • Not every rebel is a genius, but geniuses often provoke resistance
  • Many ridiculed ideas become accepted truths (heliocentrism, evolution, etc)
• Examples
  • Socrates – Executed
  • Galileo & Copernicus – Placed under house arrest
  • Martin Luther – Excommunicated
  • MLK, Mandela, Gandhi – Imprisoned
  • Joan of Arc – Burned at the stake at age 19

Range

“They were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things” – Steve Jobs

• Geniuses explore across disciplines
  • Driven by curiosity and natural inquisitiveness
  • Most impactful ideas emerge at intersections of fields
  • Narrow specialization can limit perspective
• Examples
  • Da Vinci – painter, anatomist, engineer, urban planner, inventor, scientist
  • Einstein – physics, philosophy, education reform, music
  • Musk – software, energy, transportation, aerospace, AI
  • Lady Gaga – music, choreography, cosmetics, acting, activism, fashion
  • Ben Franklin – inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, printer, civic institutions

Luck

• Geniuses rarely come from the extremes
  • Extreme poverty → limited opportunity
  • Extreme wealth → reduced incentive to create or struggle
• Luck Favors the Prepared
  • Observational skills + knowledge enable opportunities to be exploited
  • Exposure to diverse perspectives often in metropolises or universities
• Examples
  • Fleming – sloppy lab habits + accidental mold → discovery of penicillin
  • Mona Lisa – theft increased global publicity → cemented status

Move Fast and Break Things

• Genius ≠ Goodness
  • Genius measures impact and innovation, not moral character
  • Many figures caused harm while creating breakthroughs
  • Revolutions require disrupting the existing, sometimes leaving collateral damage
• Examples
  • Steve Jobs – often cruel and dismissive in personal and professional life
  • Thomas Edison – ruthless and abusive in business and relationships
  • Pablo Picasso – abusive toward women, causing lasting harm

Now Relax

• Creativity thrives in states of relaxation, play, and rest
  • Structured leisure is not a waste, but necessary
  • Most people get best ideas in non-work settings (showers, walks, sleep)
  • Play allows your mind to explore freely
• Examples
  • Einstein: played violin while thinking
  • Tesla: came up with alternating current while reciting poetry during a walk
  • Otto Loewi: dream-inspired idea led to chemical neurotransmission

Concentrate

• Ideas require more than inspiration
  • Insight alone is fleeting
  • Deliberate effort is needed to transform ideas into reality
• Protect deep work
  • Building a mental “wall” shields thinking from distraction
  • Sustained attention enables complex problem-solving and creative execution
• Examples
  • Stephen Hawking – performed complex physics entirely in his mind
  • Isaac Newton – skipped meals, stood for hours to remain immersed in thought
  • Albert Einstein – scribbled equations at parties while bouncing his baby