The Hidden Habits of Genius

To understand the Mona Lisa, we must accept that the meaning of a painting may not rest in the work itself as much as it does in the viewer. Art historians call this “reverse perspective.”

Instead of the artist telling us something, the lady in this painting wants to engage in a dialogue with the viewer.

If you want to better understand an object or concept, conceive of the opposite

According to Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion, “For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “I must be cruel only to be kind.”

To understand the Mona Lisa, we must accept that the meaning of a painting may not rest in the work itself as much as it does in the viewer

With Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, painting took a quantum turn. The lines of communication are reversed. Instead of the artist telling us something, the lady in this painting wants to engage in a dialogue with the viewer. Her question, in the form of her quizzical smile, is a provocation. Here painting ceases to be monodirectional dogma and becomes bidirectional engagement.

In 2011, Steve Jobs said that for technology to be truly brilliant, it must be coupled with artistry. “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,” he said. “It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.”

The geniuses of this chapter, however, teach a different lesson. They instruct us to wander widely, combine things, cross-train, be fearless, keep our eyes open, avoid sunk cost syndrome, and have the boldness of ignorance. They also implicitly caution us against thinking that education must lead immediately to that job of a lifetime.

MacKinnon’s exhortation: Don’t be the blinkered hedgehog. Do what the farsighted fox Nikola Tesla urged: have the boldness of ignorance.

The expert, all too often, ‘knows’ both on theoretical grounds and on the basis of empirical findings that certain things are not so or just cannot be done. The naive novice ventures what the expert would never attempt, and often enough succeeds.”