Genius

Any success I’ve had in my life is not because of any one thing that I did all by myself.  It was taking what already existed, some foundation in some field of study, and building upon it.  Just simply taking the next step.

Think about it.  How much more difficult would it be to build a computer if there was no electrical grid?  How impossible would most of the things we now take for granted be without the fundamentals of a working society?  Not just physical, but mental as well.  How much easier is it to build on the math that someone before us figured out?  How much easier is it to use the tools that someone else designed.  You don’t have to be a genius, you just have to be willing to stand on the shoulders of the genius’ that have come before you.

One of the key fundamentals of genius is to ask the questions, and break down the process into its separate parts.  This is what Elon Musk calls First Principals thinking.  Break things down to their component parts, and understand what makes them tick.  Then see if you can build it back up with new approaches, new concepts, and get rid of all the old assumptions.  You might just discover a better way.  Like reusable rockets.

Speaking of reusable rockets, what you have to understand about life is everything around you was created by someone just like you.  Someone no smarter than you.  Just someone who was able to make their vision come to life.  You can form the world around you, and influence not only your own experience, but the experience of millions of others.

You can do it.  You are smart enough.  You are your own genius and you can make things that only exist in your imagination come to life.

When people talk about genius, there is often something that people overlook.  They think that people who speak in long words, about complicated ideas, in and amongst people in their own field.  It becomes almost another language.

This all seems like genius, and in some cases it is, but there is a higher form.  Simple.  If something is so complicated that it can’t be communicated, or used by anyone, is it really that smart?  But if it’s simple, so everyone can understand, that is the highest level of genius.  Think of Einstein, and E=MC2, and think of the iPhone, a simple user interface that my grandmother could use.

Simple.  That is true genius.