Genius and Insanity Do You Need to Be Crazy to Be the Best
Research says experts practice for 10,000 hours. That's a lot of hours. A crazy amount of hours, one might say. I've posted a lot about "deliberate practice" and the work habits of geniuses. They're relentless. Via Daily Rituals How Artists Work, Here's the question, Is that just something that obsessed, crazy people do? Does this prove the often-theorized connection between genius and insanity?, We assume 10,000 hours of practice means passion or dedication. How often does it just mean stone-cold obsessed?, , Steve Jobs? Brilliant and obsessed. Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, That was in Apple's factory  not someplace consumers would ever see. Dying of cancer didn't make a difference. He demanded the oxygen mask the doctors put on him be redesigned. Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, But there was no doubt this obsessiveness made him great. Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, Thomas Jefferson read fifteen hours a day in order to complete college in 2 years. He kept track of every single cent he ever spent in his life. Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, Alfred Kinsey, groundbreaking sex researcher, recorded sex histories on almost 8000 people, put together the world's largest collection of sex books and, deciding that the Dewey Decimal system was inadequate, created his own method of classification. Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, I've posted about Paul Erdos, the "all-roads-lead-to-Rome" of the mathematics world, being obsessive at the extreme, wandering the world in search of new challenges with numbers. Genius and insanity? Yup. Via The Man Who Loved Only Numbers The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth, Baseball legend Ted Williams didn't just obsessively swing a bat, he also zealously amassed data to perfect his skills, long before "Moneyball.", Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, To learn how to make people like you, click here., , Here's where we stop saying "genius and insanity" loosely. There are connections between creativity and mental disorders. More specifically, obsessively thinking about things is connected to depression  but it's also correlated with creativity, This rumination/perseverence connection can be a double edged sword for creative people, Obsessive people can be hell to be around, genius or not. What did Ted Williams' second wife, model Lee Howard, say at their divorce hearing?, Via America's Obsessives The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation, To learn the secret to being happier and more successful, click here., , Harvard's Howard Gardner studied a number of creative geniuses and found that to reach those heights requires enormous sacrifice in other areas of life  what amounted to a Faustian bargain. Einstein lived in self-imposed isolation, Freud had an ascetic existence and Picasso became a selfish monster. If hours alone determine genius then it is inevitable that reaching the greatest heights will be indistinguishable from pathological obsession. Via Creating Minds An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Ghandi, To learn how Navy SEALs develop grit and never give up, click here., , Personally, you probably don't need to worry about the line between genius and insanity. You're not going to get tied up in a Faustian bargain with your work, and let everything fall by the wayside to perfect your art. But you can still learn from the crazies. They did what they loved. They spent the time, probably enjoying the process much more than yet another hour of Netflix, and they became great. If you want a healthy amount of what they had, what should you do next?, Start educating yourself. Which of the below is your weak spot?, Click, read and improve, Join over 195,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts, How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done  5 Expert Tips, How To Get People To Like You 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert, New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More Successful,