Learning From Literature

The Hidden Habits Of Genius by Craig Wright

Cover of 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.

Purchase the book by clicking this link!

Enjoy!

Table of Contents

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Hitting 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 involves “performing” – working through something that someone else has already formed
    • 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
  • Common Personality Traits:
    • Work Ethic
    • Resilience
    • Originality
    • Childlike Imagination
    • Insatiable Curiosity
    • Passion
    • Creative Maladjustment
    • Rebelliousness
    • Cross-Border Thinking
    • Contrarian Action
    • Preparation
    • Obsession
    • Relaxation
    • Concentration
Gift or Hard Work?

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

Albert Einstein
  • Genius = Nature + Nurture
    • Geniuses may be born with unique abilities, but talent alone isn’t enough
    • Most are raised in ordinary homes, not elite environments
  • IQ, Tests, & Grades ≠ Genius
    • Standardized metrics often miss creativity, intuition, emotional depth, vision
    • Geniuses aren’t always high academic achievers
    • Genius often breaks from conventional thinking, sees connections others don’t
  • Examples
    • Beethoven – musical genius, but 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 thrives outside traditional measures and often emerges from struggle
Genius and Gender: The Game Is Rigged
  • 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 create an uphill battle
    • Disadvantages visible in everyday processes (e.g., job applications)
    • Fewer female role models and mentors, especially in STEM fields
  • Historical Disadvantages
    • Women couldn’t vote in the US until 1920
    • 1960: Harvard had just one female professor, Yale and Princeton had none
    • Women couldn’t enter Princeton and Yale undergraduate until 1969
    • Harvard merged with its female sister school only in 1999
Avoid the Prodigy Bubble
  • Most geniuses were never prodigies and most prodigies never become geniuses
    • Geniuses create
    • Prodigies merely mimic – extraordinary performers at an early age
  • Don’t try to train your child
    • Establish an independent, questioning mind 
    • Develop capacity to deal with failure
  • Albert Einstein → Not a single teacher would write a letter of recommendation. He hated them and vice-versa
Imagine the World as Does a Child

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

Aldous Huxley
  • “Growing up” encourages loss of creative imagination
    • Picasso — “When I was a child, I could paint like Rafael, but it took me a lifetime to paint like a child”
  • Innovation REQUIRES creativity & imagination
    • Jeff Bezos — “You have to have a certain childlike ability to not be trapped by your expertise”
  • Examples
    • Mary Shelley: At 18 with no formal education, conceived Frankenstein during a stormy dinner party
    • Albert Einstein → Envisioned imaginary moving objects and only later (“maybe”) tried to attach formulas to them
Develop a Lust for Learning

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education “

Mark Twain
  • Key to Success: Curiosity + Lifelong Learning
    • Albert Einstein: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
    • Mozart: No formal schooling
    • Leonardo da Vinci: A medical scientist without formal training in the field
    • Many iconic figures (Michelangelo, Ben Franklin, Beethoven, Picasso, etc.) never advanced beyond elementary school
    • Modern tech leaders (Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg, Musk, etc.) dropped out but thrived by learning what they needed
  • Two Methods of Learning
    • Experiential Learning
    • Vicarious Learning (via reading, gaining perspectives, and insights)
  • Leonardo da Vinci’s Self-Learning
    • One-day to-do list: urban planning, hydraulics, warfare, astronomy, math, and more
    • Studied and experimented across multiple fields (from anatomy to physics)
    • Made discoveries that modern science only confirmed centuries later (heart’s 4 chambers, arteriosclerosis)
  • Nikola Tesla’s Passion for Learning
    • Self-taught in physics, math, and engineering
    • Invented alternating current, the induction motor, and envisioned technologies like cell phones and the internet
Find Your Missing Piece
  • Geniuses cannot accept the world as described to them (some to the dark side of obsession)
    • Isaac Newton: Would isolate himself for days, eating little and standing while thinking to maintain his “flow”. Obsessed with problems until resolved.
    • Thomas Edison: Worked 18-hour days, rarely leaving his desk. Over his lifetime, he registered 1,093 patents.
  • Everyday passions can be unique, but geniuses’ drive is transformational
Leverage Your Difference
  • About 1/3 of geniuses studied in this book experienced significant mood disorders
    • Vincent 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
  • Geniuses often turned their struggles into opportunities for creative expression
Rebels, Misfits, and Troublemakers
  • Geniuses often defy norms, authority, and societal expectations in pursuit of truth
    • They disrupt, challenge, and reshape the status quo
    • Not every rebel is a genius…
  • Rejected Visionaries
    • Socrates: Executed for “corrupting the youth” with philosophical inquiry
    • Galileo & Copernicus: Opposed the Church by claiming Earth revolves around the Sun; life under house arrest
    • Martin Luther: Criticized the Catholic Church; excommunicated
    • MLK, Mandela, Gandhi: Imprisoned for their revolutionary, nonviolent resistance
    • Joan of Arc: Burned at the stake for heresy at 19
    • Harriet Tubman: Risked her life repeatedly to free slaves
    • Charles Darwin: Shook the religious and scientific world with evolution theory
  • Time Catches Up
    • Many ideas once punished or ridiculed are now accepted truths (heliocentrism, vaccination, evolution)
  • Genius often makes people uncomfortable
Be The Fox

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

Steve Jobs
  • Geniuses tend to explore beyond their main discipline, driven by natural inquisitiveness
    • Most impactful ideas come from intersecting multiple fields
    • Narrow specialization can limit perspective
    • Range → “If you are too much of an insider, it’s hard to get a good perspective”
  • Examples
    • Leonardo da Vinci: painter, anatomist, engineer, urban planner, inventor, scientist
    • Einstein: physics, philosophy, education reform, music
    • Elon Musk: software, energy, transportation, aerospace, AI
    • Lady Gaga: music, choreography, cosmetics, acting, activism, fashion
    • Ben Franklin: inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, printer, civic institutions
Think Opposite
  • To understand something fully, consider its opposite or reverse
    • How a machine is put together → disassemble it
    • A particular result → define the goal & create steps leading back to the beginning
  • Examples
    • MLK: Used nonviolence as a strategic force against injustice
    • Henry Ford: Inspired by disassembly in slaughterhouses, he reversed it to assemble cars
Get Lucky
  • Geniuses usually do not come from economic extremes
    • Extreme poverty → little opportunity
    • Extreme wealth → little incentive
  • Luck Favors the Prepared
    • Develop observational skills and knowledge to exploit what is revealed
    • Geniuses usually move to a metropolis or university – exposure to diverse perspectives
  • Examples
    • Alexander Fleming: Sloppy lab habits + accidental mold = discovery of penicillin
    • Leonardo da Vinci & the Mona Lisa: Theft led to massive global publicity → transformed Mona Lisa into the world’s most iconic painting
Move Fast and Break Things

“Destruction is more than just an unfortunate side effect of creation. It is part and parcel of the same thing”

Alan Greenspan
  • Genius ≠ Goodness
    • The label of genius is based on impact and innovation, not character
    • Many who changed the world also deeply hurt people along the way
  • Destruction Is Often Part of Creation
    • Geniuses can be disruptive, reshaping society but leaving damage in their wake
  • Examples of Flawed Genius
    • Steve Jobs: Brilliant innovator; also cruel, dismissive, and ethically questionable in personal and professional settings
    • Thomas Edison: Tireless inventor; ruthless and abusive in business and personal life
    • Pablo Picasso: Artistic pioneer; abusive and destructive toward women in his life, many of whom suffered lasting psychological harm and suicide
  • Society celebrates what these individuals produced, but struggles with how they lived
    • Can – or should – genius be separated from character?
Now Relax
  • Creativity thrives in states of relaxation, play, and rest
    • Structured leisure is not a waste, but necessary
    • Most people get their best ideas in non-work settings (showers, walks, drifting off to sleep)
    • Play allows your mind to explore freely
    • Exercise boosts brain function, improving creativity and idea generation
    • Sleep may be the single most powerful tool for creative insight
  • Examples
    • Einstein: played violin while thinking
    • Tesla: came up with alternating current while reciting poetry during a walk.
    • Otto Loewi: woke with a dream-inspired idea that led to chemical neurotransmission
Time to Concentrate!
  • Ideas need more than inspiration — they demand focused realization
    • Conceived when relaxed or not, ideas must then be realized 
  • Examples
    • Stephen Hawking: forced to do complex theoretical physics entirely in his head
    • Isaac Newton: skipped meals and remained standing to stay immersed in thought
    • Einstein: scribbled equations at parties while bouncing a baby on his knee
    • Da Vinci: would follow and study subjects for days — then paint in an uninterrupted creative burst
  • Sustained attention turns fleeting insight into revolutionary work

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