Let's Discuss The Six Habits of Genius.

1. Look at the world through the eyes of a child.

There are few Halloween villains more familiar than Dr. Frankenstein’s famous monster – but did you know that his creator, Mary Shelley, was only 19 years old when she finished writing her iconic novel?

In fact, she actually began work on the novel Frankenstein when she was just 18. After making a bet with her soon-to-be husband, poet Percy Shelley, and his friend Lord Byron about which of them could create the scariest story, the idea for the book suddenly seized her – and like that, a literary classic was born.

There’s no denying that writing Frankenstein as a teenager is evidence of Mary Shelley’s genius – but maybe we’re wrong to look at Mary Shelley’s age as an obstacle she overcame. Maybe the fact that she wrote when her childhood wasn’t far behind her actually proved to be an advantage.

The key message here is: Look at the world through the eyes of a child.

Whereas Mary Shelley produced her finest work as a teenager, another genius, the artist Pablo Picasso, produced masterpieces even as he grew old. Unlike Shelley, Picasso isn’t primarily remembered for just one youthful creation – but that doesn’t mean that he can’t teach us something about the value of a childlike point of view.

As a child, Picasso was mentored by his artist father, whose teaching helped the young Picasso to produce astounding and technically brilliant works of art from an early age. But there was a problem. 

For all his paintings’ precision, they still lacked something key: real creativity and innovation – exactly what we mean when we use the word “genius.” So how did Picasso break out of the mold his father had set for him and begin painting in the daring way we’re familiar with today? It’s simple: he embraced a kind of childishness.

Picasso himself said, “It takes a lot of time to become young.” The great artist had to learn how to channel childlike impulses in his art, and began experimenting with bold lines, cartoonish figures, and daring colors.

So maybe we should think twice before encouraging children to grow up. As the examples of Mary Shelley and Picasso prove, a fresh, young, and somewhat childlike view of the world is often closer to genius than a grown-up perspective.

2. Cultivate a strong sense of curiosity.

If you were asked to name a genius, who would spring to mind? Einstein, maybe? Shakespeare? What about one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance – the multitalented Leonardo da Vinci?

To many, Leonardo encapsulates everything we mean when we use the term “genius.” The famous Italian artist was a painter, a sculptor, an engineer, an architect, an anatomist, and more. More importantly, Leonardo didn’t just fulfill these roles; he excelled in them, far exceeding the efforts and expectations of his peers.

But the thing is, Leonardo wasn’t a well-educated man by the standards of his day, having received no instruction in Latin or Greek – which were thought of as the backbone of prestigious schooling. In the absence of an elite education, how can we account for Leonardo’s genius? It boils down to curiosity.

Here’s the key message: Cultivate a strong sense of curiosity. 

Curiosity takes many forms, and different people are curious about different things. Some take an interest in stamp collecting. Others like baseball. A few learn about the great military campaigns of ancient civilizations. But what distinguishes rare geniuses like Leonardo from the rest of us is that they seem to be curious about almost everything.

Take, for example, the entries on Leonardo’s to-do list for a single day in Milan. His tasks included calculating the area of the city and its suburbs; finding a book describing the area’s churches; learning how to square a triangle mathematically; examining a crossbow; finding out how to repair a canal lock; and asking a man about the measurement of the sun. And those are just the highlights!

Leonardo’s restless mind was constantly struggling to learn about and understand the world around him – and it was precisely this great curiosity that drove him toward the achievements that made him famous. 

Few of us will turn into Leonardos – but we can all try to be more receptive to the world around us. If you want to develop your sense of curiosity, then try to adopt an open and eager attitude to experiencing new things. If you’re in a new city, let yourself wander around; if you’re in a bookshop, choose something you wouldn’t normally take an interest in. Curiosity makes the world a richer place.

3. Give your work your complete attention.

Let’s stick with Leonardo da Vinci for a minute. We’ve already seen that he had an extraordinary sense of curiosity about the world around him. But that on its own isn't a recipe for genius; in order to create an artistic ability as great as Leonardo’s, a few more key ingredients are necessary. Chief among them: outstanding powers of concentration.

When it came to creating works of art, Leonardo favored a slow and deliberate manner. Instead of rushing in and beginning straight away, he could agonize for weeks about seemingly trivial details, like a fold of clothing or a shaft of light.

When an abbot complained about how long it was taking Leonardo to paint The Last Supper, he replied that great geniuses require time to form the “perfect ideas” that they then manifest with their hands. So what’s the lesson here?

The key message is this: Give your work your complete attention. 

The ability to concentrate at great length and with intense focus is common to many geniuses. Take Albert Einstein. When you imagine him devising his groundbreaking theories, you probably picture him in a silent study or at a dusty chalkboard in a lecture hall. In reality, Einstein was able to concentrate no matter where he found himself.

A friend described visiting Einstein in 1903, when he’d recently become a father, and wrote that, although the place stank of diapers and stale smoke, the great thinker was totally unfazed. With his child on one knee and a notepad on the other, he’d jot down equations and rock his baby at the same time.

Although every genius seems to recognize the importance of intense concentration, not all of them are able to tune out background noise like Einstein. Many of the greatest geniuses go to great lengths to minimize disruptions while they work.

The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy made a habit of locking the door while he wrote. Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita in the back seat of his parked car, declaring it the only place in the world with no drafts and no pesky noises. 

Whether concentration comes easily like it did to Einstein, or whether a genius needs a distraction-free environment like Nabokov, the ability to focus entirely on the task at hand lies at the heart of any genius’s ability.

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