tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/genius-5832/articles
Genius – The Conversation
2019-05-06T19:19:51Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/116493
2019-05-06T19:19:51Z
2019-05-06T19:19:51Z
Artist, engineer, wedding planner: 500 years of Leonardo da Vinci
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272327/original/file-20190502-103075-1w6wb4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C374%2C1997%2C1508&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, _Saint John the Baptist_.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#/media/File:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Saint_John_the_Baptist_C2RMF_retouched.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets” (Leonardo da Vinci)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in a farm village in Tuscany. As a young boy he received no particular education but showed a keen interest in arts and in the <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/leonardo-da-vinci-40396">utilisation of diverse materials</a>. Far from having noble origins, he was considered an “illegitimate” son, a term used for children born to unmarried parents that consigned him, at age 15, to the <a href="https://www.notablebiographies.com/knowledge/Apprenticeship.html">guardianship of Andrea del Verrocchio</a>.</p>
<p>From his early beginnings and through his long career, Leonardo was able to work on a stunning range of public and private projects – from paintings, sculptures, sketches and frescos to military equipment. One of his last works was a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-davinci-lion/da-vincis-lion-prowls-again-after-500-years-idUSTRE57D1MQ20090814">mechanical lion that could open its chest to reveal a bouquet of fleur de lys</a>, a symbol of the French monarchy.</p>
<h2>Science meets art meets science</h2>
<p>Leonardo saw no limits to the use of his artistic competences in favour of his engineering ones and vice versa. As he was painting he remained a scientist, coming up with new colours, products and techniques, just as he was comfortable as an artist who produced engineering work – his sketches are proof of this. Indeed, Leonardo’s inventiveness in the art studio is in part responsible for the poor state of many of his works. <em>The Last Supper</em>, a 15th-century mural in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, was painted on dry rather than wet plaster, and was flaking just <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/25/the-last-supper-eataly-conservation-project-art-restoration/">20 years after it was completed</a>.</p>
<p>The depth and breadth of Leonardo’s knowledge is everywhere – works on physics are informed with his understanding of anatomy and human psychology. Perhaps the most representative of this crossover of worlds is the <em>The Vitruvian Man</em>. It is based on the work of Roman architect Vitruvius, who based architectural proportions on the human form. It allowed Leonardo to transcend and join conceptions of mathematics, anatomy and design into one human figure, a unique visual bridge between the sciences.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251732/original/file-20181220-45391-1uivnxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci, <em>Vitruve Luc Viatour</em>.</span>
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<h2>Life-long learning through observation and experimentation</h2>
<p>Leonardo da Vinci can also be understood as a continuous quest for learning, of life-long learning. He was a man addicted to knowledge and convinced of the need to build and develop complimentary capacities, competences and capabilities. But what is even more remarkable is that Leonardo was a self-learner, an autodidact. Through the power of observation, he was able to grasp the significance of complex phenomena and the relationships between variables.</p>
<p>An example are his contributions to geology. From simple observation he was one of the first scientists to recognize that fossils were in fact the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2015/07/31/leonardo-da-vincis-geological-observations-revolutionized-renaissance-art/#6979a25d49d9">imprinted remains of animals</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“… among one and another rock layer, there are the traces of the worms that crawled in them when they were not yet dry.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The first manager-engineer</h2>
<p>The historic recollection of his contributions shows us that Leonardo was also capable of “selling” new projects. From the Medicis to the Sforzas, Da Vinci took on projects that went from the conception of military devices to the painting of the <em>Last Supper</em>, from architecture to bat-inspired flying machines.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251730/original/file-20181220-45385-6pb9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Leonardo da Vinci’s proposed flying machine.</span>
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<p>In this sense Leonardo was capable of far more than just proposing innovative devices or magnificent works of art. He was also able to produce them in a project-management fashion: finding the necessary funding, establishing the different technical and human demand, and bringing the requested projects to life. In this sense, we can find that the “hardness” of Leonardo’s techniques were met by a “softness”, a parallel capacity to please his future clients through the presentation of new ideas.</p>
<p>Leonardo was even a successful event planner. On June 19, 1518, he planned the festivities to celebrate the wedding of <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-unknown-life-of-leonardo-da-vinci-in-france/">Lorenzo di Pietro de Medici and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne</a> at Amboise. Of course, not even a genius is free from a potential disaster when preparing a big event such of a wedding. In a previous experience, when Ludovico Sforza asked him to create an edible 200-foot-long altar made of cake and polenta for his daughter’s wedding, da Vinci forgot to take one element into consideration: rats, which <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-davinci-was-a-wedding-planner">ate the majority of the altar the day before the wedding</a>.</p>
<h2>Seeking the new “Leonardos”</h2>
<p>On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s passing, and in appreciation of his rich and varied contributions, the question becomes: How can our educational systems can inspire the same imaginative qualities in students today?</p>
<p>One answer is to encourage interdisciplinarity – to train engineers to draw, architects to manage, managers to understand biology and biologists to explore the mechanics of a robot. There is much to be said in the life of someone who never stopped learning, and one of whose key competences was to learn by observing.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The natural desire of good men is knowledge” (Leonardo de Vinci)</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fernanda Arreola ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
On the 500th anniversary Leonardo’s death and in appreciation of his rich and varied contributions, how can our educational systems inspire the same imaginative qualities in students today?
Fernanda Arreola, Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation @ EMLV, Pôle Léonard de Vinci
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/92053
2018-10-16T11:29:43Z
2018-10-16T11:29:43Z
Creativity is a human quality that exists in every single one of us
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237937/original/file-20180925-149955-1gvk491.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you think about creativity, it might be highly creative people like Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein who spring to mind. They were all considered to be “geniuses” for their somewhat unique talents that led to global innovation in their fields. Their type of creativity is what’s known as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228345133_Beyond_Big_and_Little_The_Four_C_Model_of_Creativity">Big C creativity</a>” (or historical) and is not very common in everyday life. Not all of us can create works of art or music or scientific theories that are new to the world. </p>
<p>But while we can’t all be Mozart, da Vinci or Einstein, many people do enjoy creative activity – through hobbies such as water colour painting or playing the piano. And these types of pursuits are often what people think of when asked what being creative looks like. Our finished pieces may not be comparable with the likes of the great masters, but often the process is therapeutic and the end result can be aesthetically pleasing. </p>
<p>On top of hobbies and interests, we all possess creative attributes that can help as we solve life’s problems and make decisions. It is this type of creativity that enables us to plan different routes to get to the same destination, or how to fit in a trip to the supermarket when our schedule looks full. </p>
<p>It might not sound very creative, but this aspect of creativity relies on our ability to consider options and assess their suitability, as well as how to make decisions based on personal prior experience or what we have learnt formally or informally. These examples are known as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228345133_Beyond_Big_and_Little_The_Four_C_Model_of_Creativity">small c creativity</a>” or “personal everyday creativity”.</p>
<h2>Creative outcomes</h2>
<p>While Big C creativity is valued and celebrated, it is often small c creativity that has allowed humans to flourish over thousands of years. It sets us apart from other animals and it is also the type of creativity which can be fostered through our education system and beyond into the workplace. </p>
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<p>Traditionally, research tells us that creativity has been largely associated with the arts. Our <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004279.2017.1385641">previous research</a> has shown that teachers are often able to give examples of creative activity in arts subjects, but find it harder to do so when asked to describe creativity in subjects such as science. </p>
<p>But there is a growing realisation that opportunities to be creative are found across a broader range of subjects. For instance, engineering provides opportunities to be creative through problem solving, and history gives the opportunity to think creatively about why events happened, and what motivated those involved. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.icieconference.net/images/ICIEProgrammeParis2018.pdf">Research has shown</a> that training teachers to ask particular types of questions can be one way to help support creativity across the curriculum. This is because generating solutions to problems and explanations are creative processes, and these are vital if children are to have a “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Instructional-Strategies-Theory-Practice/dp/1412995728">complete education</a>”. </p>
<p>Our research also shows how it can be more helpful to talk about “thinking creatively” rather than “creativity”. This is because people tend to see thinking creatively as independence of thought and a willingness to take risks and seek new perspectives. It is also seen as a way to perceive new relationships, make new connections, and generate new ideas. </p>
<h2>Moving creativity forward</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/creativitycommission/">The Durham Creativity Commission</a> is a collaboration between Arts Council England and Durham University that aims to identify ways in which creativity, and specifically creative thinking, can play a larger part in our lives.</p>
<p>We are working alongside people in education, as well as businesses and arts and science communities, collecting their views on creativity and creative thinking. We will also be looking across these groups to determine whether or not there is a relationship between creativity and mobility, creativity and identity as well as creativity and well-being. We hope to be able to show that thinking creatively can not only be encouraged and furthered in a variety of contexts, but can also lead to positive outcomes on a personal, social and economic level. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237938/original/file-20180925-149952-1xq93si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Getting creative is good for your health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In a rapidly changing world, creativity is important for people and society on many levels – it can help to generate personal satisfaction and be important for economic development. This is why creative thinking must be a key priority in educational environments. </p>
<p>In the same way, creativity must also be recognised and encouraged in the workplace. Because, after all, it’s creative thinking that leads to problem solving and innovation in a range of areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Everybody can think creatively – including you.
Lucy M Davies, Reasercher for Durham Commission on Creativity, Durham University
Lynn Newton, Head of Department in the School of Education, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91554
2018-05-03T10:42:10Z
2018-05-03T10:42:10Z
#MeToo in the art world: Genius should not excuse sexual harassment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217341/original/file-20180502-153884-1x2vxd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mosaics by artist Chuck Close on the walls of the new 86th Street subway station on the Second Avenue line in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This May, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was to showcase the work of two famous artists: one of painter Chuck Close and another of photographer Thomas Roma. Both exhibitions, however were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/25/national-gallery-cancels-shows-by-artists-accused-of-sexual-harassment/?utm_term=.cee4e27b1328">cancelled</a> due to allegations of sexual harassment. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/arts/design/chuck-close-exhibit-harassment-accusations.html">public debate</a> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1396127/Red-blooded-Caravaggio-killed-love-rival-in-bungled-castration-attempt.html">sparked</a> by the cancellations has centered around the question, is it possible to separate the value of art from the personal conduct of the artist? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7voeCdwAAAAJ&hl=enhttps://stamps.umich.edu">scholar of aesthetics and gender studies</a>, I believe, in the wake of #MeToo this is a good time to revisit the argument of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin <a href="https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/pushkin/aleksandr/p98mo/">about the incompatibility of genius and evil.</a></p>
<h2>Genius and evil</h2>
<p>In his short play from 1830, “Mozart and Salieri,” Pushkin fictionalizes an encounter between the composer Antonio Salieri and his younger friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, Austria. Based on existing rumors at the time, Pushkin presents Salieri as envious of Mozart’s genius to the point of poisoning him at the meeting. </p>
<p>Pushkin’s claim in this play was that the human value of good defines genius, and hence committing a crime disqualifies one from being a genius. Based on this presentation of Salieri as evil, his reputation as a composer was tarnished. </p>
<p>After new research suggested that Mozart died from natural causes, most probably a strep infection, views on Salieri’s music also changed. With this new information, Pushkin’s argument was <a href="http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/744666/death-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-epidemiologic-perspective">revisited</a>, and Salieri’s reputation in the music community <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/dec/19/classicalmusicandopera.italy">started to improve, demonstrated by recorded albums and staging of his operas.</a> </p>
<p>This goes to show how art makers and their audiences become emotionally attached to artists and composers as individuals, and not just to their music or painting. Pushkin himself identified strongly with Mozart. </p>
<p>And the change in attitudes to Salieri also supports Pushkin’s original argument that how genius is understood is strongly correlated with human values, where good and genius reinforce each other. </p>
<h2>The debate</h2>
<p>In the current debate in the art world over this issue, several experts have said that the value of art should not be associated with the personal conduct of its maker. For example, Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/arts/design/chuck-close-exhibit-harassment-accusations.html">suggested</a> that “we can’t not show artists because we don’t agree with them morally; we’d have fairly bare walls.” An example would be be that of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1396127/Red-blooded-Caravaggio-killed-love-rival-in-bungled-castration-attempt.html">the famous painter Caravaggio</a>, who was accused of murder and whose works continue to be on display. </p>
<p>However, James Rondeau, the president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, disagreed that museums could present their decisions about the value of the artwork as totally separate from today’s ethics. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/arts/design/chuck-close-exhibit-harassment-accusations.html">Rondeau said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The typical ‘we don’t judge, we don’t endorse, we just put it up for people to experience and decide’ falls very flat in this political and cultural
moment.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The #MeToo ethical challenge</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217343/original/file-20180502-153888-1lpwg3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The #MeToo movement has redefined sexual harassment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</span></span>
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<p>This public debate has gained significant traction in the art world because the #MeToo movement has redefined sexual harassment as evil. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-me-too-timeline-20171208-htmlstory.html">Started</a> by Tarana Burke, an African-American civil rights activist in 2006 and spread by Alyssa Milano, an American actress and activist, as a Twitter campaign in 2017, the #MeToo movement has become a social media-driven collective voice. It has presented sexual harassment and sexual violence as harm serious enough to warrant recognition and social change. </p>
<p>Consequently, a number of artists have come out with their experience of sexual harassment. Five women came forward <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/arts/design/thomas-roma-sexual-misconduct.html">accusing Thomas Roma</a>, a photographer and professor, of sexual misconduct. In the case of Chuck Close, artists <a href="https://cargocollective.com/langdongraves">Langdon Graves</a>, <a href="http://www.deliabrown.net/Delia_Brown/Home.html">Delia Brown</a> and <a href="http://officemagazine.net/interview/julia-fox">Julia Fox</a> described in interviews and on social media platforms the anguish and self-doubt his actions had caused them as individuals and also as artists. </p>
<p>Delia Brown, for example, described how Chuck Close told her at a dinner that he was a fan of her work and asked her to pose for a portrait at his studio. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/arts/design/chuck-close-sexual-harassment.html">She said</a> she was “over the moon” and excited “because having your portrait done as an artist by Chuck Close is tantamount to being canonized.” </p>
<p>However, she was shocked when he asked her to model topless, not a practice that he pursued with other famous artists. Brown refused. Explaining her anguish, she felt he saw her only as a body rather than an important artist and <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-close-sexual-harassment_us_59f877dee4b09b5c2568fd88">felt manipulated</a>. She said “a sense of distrust and disgust” has stayed with her. Other artists made similar allegations of having been invited to Close’s studio to pose for him and being shocked by his behavior.</p>
<p>Chuck Close chose to downplay the harm done to them as persons and artists by dismissing their words. <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/418322/chuck-closes-sexual-misconduct-response">He said</a> the “last time I looked, discomfort was not a major offense.” </p>
<h2>Genius redefined</h2>
<p>The point this reinforces is that if sexual harassment is wrong then the value of artwork being exhibited in a public museum is questionable.</p>
<p>Scholar <a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/facultystaff/profiles/new/newfaculty-14/Gay._Roxane.html">Roxane Gay</a>, the best-selling author of the essay collection <a href="http://www.roxanegay.com/bad-feminist/">“Bad Feminist,”</a> sums up why it is so evil, when <a href="https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a16105931/roxane-gay-on-predator-legacies/">she explains the cost to women. She says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I remember how many women’s careers were ruined; I think of those who gave up their dreams because some ‘genius’ decided indulging his thirst for power and control mattered more than her ambition and dignity. I remember all the silence, decades and decades of enforced silence, intimidation, and manipulation, that enabled bad men to flourish. When I do that, it’s quite easy for me to think nothing of the supposedly great art of bad men.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This debate has also shown how the definitions of evil in Pushkin’s “genius and evil” argument are also subjective and depend on human values at a particular time. #MeToo has changed the public view on sexual harassment. Indeed, the public debate surrounding the decision by the National Gallery of Art to cancel two exhibitions has been as much about the value of human beings as it has been about the value of art.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irina Aristarkhova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In his short play from 1830, ‘Mozart and Salieri,’
Russian poet Alexander Pushkin proposed that genius and evil are incompatible. Here’s why this argument is worth revisiting in light of #MeToo.
Irina Aristarkhova, Associate Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77760
2017-06-23T01:14:49Z
2017-06-23T01:14:49Z
Forget the insight of a lone genius – innovation is an evolving process of trial and error
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175072/original/file-20170621-9586-18nagvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Out of all these ideas, will one rise to the top?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-idea-concept-crumpled-office-paper-538395124">KlingSup/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of intellectual stars such as Darwin and Einstein. Their work is often thought to reflect their unique contributions with little or no regard to their own prior experience or to the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors. Conventional wisdom also places <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/science/louis-pasteur-chirality-chemistry.html">great weight on insight</a>, preconception and design in promoting breakthrough scientific achievements, as if ideas <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/sunday/eureka-yes-eureka.html">spontaneously pop into one’s head</a> – fully formed and functional.</p>
<p>There may be some limited truth to this view. However, as an experimental psychologist and a philosopher of science, we believe that it largely misrepresents the real nature of scientific discovery, as well as creativity and innovation in many other realms of human endeavor.</p>
<p>Setting aside the Darwins and Einsteins – whose <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1279086/">monumental contributions</a> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5673782/">are duly celebrated</a> – we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error, where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or more steps to the right or left. Instead of revolution, think evolution. This evolutionary view of human innovation undermines the notion of creative genius and recognizes the cumulative nature of scientific progress.</p>
<h2>Wrong ideas on the path to right ones</h2>
<p>In a 2017 book, one of us (ERS) <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-tale-of-seven-scientists-and-a-new-philosophy-of-science-9780190232993">discusses seven little-known scientists</a> whose partly “wrong ideas” yielded major advances in the hands of others.</p>
<p>Consider one of those unheralded scientists: John Nicholson, a Cambridge University mathematical physicist working in the 1910s, when atomic theory was in an early stage of development. Nicholson postulated the existence of “proto-elements” in outer space. Using a fanciful atomic theory, Nicholson estimated the relative weights of his atoms of coronium, nebulium, proto-fluorine and so on. By combining different numbers of these alleged proto-atoms, Nicholson could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. On a dramatically larger scale, Nicholson could also account for astrophysical details in the Milky Way’s Orion Nebula.</p>
<p>These successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that none of Nicholson’s proto-elements actually exist.</p>
<p>Yet, amid his often wild speculations, Nicholson also proposed that a defining aspect of atoms – what physicists call the angular momentum of their electrons – can have only certain discrete values, or quanta. Niels Bohr, the father of modern atomic theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/46886/bohrs-atomic-model/">now-famous model of the atom</a>.</p>
<p>What are we to make of this history? One might simply conclude that science is a collective and cumulative enterprise. Ideas spread and some scientists are more adept than others at exploiting them. That may be true, but there may be a deeper insight to be gleaned.</p>
<h2>Orderly march or random stroll?</h2>
<p>We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as species of animals do. In biological systems, organisms may display new characteristics that result from random genetic mutations. In the same way, random mutations of ideas may help pave the way for advances in science. If mutations in either biology or science prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.</p>
<p>In this decidedly Darwinian scenario, there is no design, intelligent or otherwise. There is only random variation and selection, with biological or behavioral evolution unfolding in a trial-and-error fashion.</p>
<p>Support for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many <a href="https://evolution-institute.org/article/what-we-make-and-do-can-evolve-with-no-end-in-sight/">diverse realms of human endeavor</a>, as one of us (EAW) has recently documented. Consider one striking example.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175073/original/file-20170621-14473-1gb1plt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A serendipitous improvement can spread like wildfire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Breeders-Cup-Classic-Horse-Racing/b9c63b94d35e4dae86bddc9b45d86ba3/2/0">AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A particularly influential innovation can be spotted at the thoroughbred racetrack. It requires viewing horse and jockey from either the front or rear: the jockey’s left stirrup is often placed as much as a foot lower than the right. This so-called <a href="http://racehorseherbal.com/wordpress/?p=217">“acey-deucey” stirrup placement</a> is believed to confer important advantages on oval tracks, where in the U.S., only left turns are encountered in counterclockwise races. Although science has yet to prove its efficacy, acey-deucey placement may permit the horse and rider to “lean” into the turn and provide the pair with greater strength by harnessing the centripetal force of a tight turn.</p>
<p>A relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope developed acey-deucey, although it was popularized by a far more famous rider, Eddie Arcaro. Had Westrope conducted methodical investigations or examined extensive film records in a shrewd plan to outrun his rivals? Had he foreseen the speed advantage that would be conferred by riding acey-deucey? No. He suffered a leg injury which left him unable to fully bend his left knee. It was a gimpy left leg that led to Westrope’s off-kilter style – which just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand turning performance. That’s serendipity.</p>
<p>What was not serendipitous was the rapid and widespread adoption of riding acey-deucey by many of Westrope’s competitors, a racing style which continues in today’s thoroughbred racing.</p>
<h2>Variation and selection, with no end in sight</h2>
<p>Plenty of other examples show that, in many realms of human endeavor, <a href="https://evolution-institute.org/article/what-we-make-and-do-can-evolve-with-no-end-in-sight/">fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure and serendipity</a>. Examples such as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/may/08/50-stunning-olympic-moments-dick-fosbury">Fosbury Flop</a>, <a href="http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/post-it-notes-were-invented-by-accident/">Post-It Notes</a> and the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/dr-heimlich-got-maneuver/">Heimlich Maneuver</a> all give lie to the claim that ingenious, designing minds are responsible for human creativity and invention. Far more mundane and mechanical forces may be at work; forces that are fundamentally connected to the laws of physics, chemistry and biology. </p>
<p>The notions of insight, creativity and genius are often invoked, but they remain <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sudden-genius/201011/can-we-define-genius">vague and of doubtful scientific utility</a>, especially when one considers the diverse and enduring contributions of individuals such as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Picasso and Tolstoy; Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Curie, Pasteur and Edison. These notions merely label rather than explain the evolution of human innovations. We need another approach, and there is a promising candidate.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2012.98-213">Law of Effect</a> was discovered by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-L-Thorndike">psychologist Edward Thorndike</a> 40 years after Charles Darwin published “The Origin of Species.” This simple law holds that organisms tend to <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html">repeat successful behaviors and to refrain from performing unsuccessful ones</a>. Just like the Law of Natural Selection, upon which evolution depends, the Law of Effect involves an entirely mechanical process of variation and selection; further, it too blindly proceeds with no end in sight.</p>
<p>Of course, the origin of novel ideas and behaviors demands much further study. In particular, the provenance of the raw material on which the law of effect operates is not as clearly known as that of the genetic mutations on which the law of natural selection operates. The generation of novel ideas and behaviors may not be entirely random, but constrained by prior successes and failures – of the current individual (such as Bohr) or of predecessors (such as Nicholson).</p>
<p>The time seems right for jettisoning the jejune notions of <a href="http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/designing-minds/1">intelligent design</a> and genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We don’t know much about the origins of most human achievements – scientific and otherwise. Like evolution, does progress occur as random insights are selected for or against?
Edward Wasserman, Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Iowa
Eric Scerri, Science Author & Chemistry Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60430
2016-07-07T02:11:09Z
2016-07-07T02:11:09Z
There’s more than practice to becoming a world-class expert
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129086/original/image-20160703-18337-19zcfo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What explains the exceptional performance of Stephen Curry?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/16454505719/in/photolist-9nsxih-9npzd2-9npYbV-9nsuno-9ntx4A-9nsu69-9nptRx-9npr1r-9nsBPC-9nsr1S-9nsqCm-r52Dht-rmt3kn-sufi14-9nsxXs-9nsxF7-9nsoG7-r39zxv-9nq6QK-dTAuyK-dTAuPF-dTAunk-dTAv4n-dTG9hL-buWfqr-DBJpgm-dTAw4v-dTG77b-dTGaC1-dTAt1a-dTG6Lw-CQK9De-DBJ6Rb-DeDcbi-DkYEd1-CQAArA-CQBmKA-dZYZKh-dZTffi-dTG4SE-dZZ1Vq-e1UVVf-ujKMzd-jscSpt-dZTfpT-qS9e2a-F6s2kr-qTuLXw-cQ8Kto-dZTo1t">Keith Allison</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some people are dramatically better at activities like sports, music and chess than other people. Take the basketball great <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/stephen-curry">Stephen Curry</a>. This past season, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/16/upshot/stephen-curry-golden-state-warriors-3-pointers.html?_r=0">breaking the record</a> he set last year by over 40 percent, Curry made an astonishing 402 three-point shots – 126 more than his closest challenger.</p>
<p>What explains this sort of exceptional performance? Are experts “born,” endowed with a genetic advantage? Are they entirely “made” through training? Or is there some of both?</p>
<h2>What earlier studies show</h2>
<p>This question is the subject of a long-running debate in psychology, and is the focus of the new book <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anders-ericsson/peak-secrets/">“Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise”</a> by <a href="https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson.dp.html">Florida State University psychologist Anders Ericsson</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Pool/e/B000APHDXM/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_2">science writer Robert Pool</a>. </p>
<p>In a 1993 <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1993-40718-001">study</a>, Ericsson and his colleagues recruited violinists from an elite Berlin music academy and asked them to estimate the amount of time they had spent engaging in “deliberate practice” across their musical careers. </p>
<p>Deliberate practice, as Ericsson and his colleagues have defined it, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1359813980090106#.V3PpdY-cFn0">includes training activities</a> that are specifically designed to improve a person’s performance in an endeavor like playing an instrument. These activities require a high level of concentration and aren’t inherently enjoyable. Consequently, the amount of deliberate practice even experts can engage in is limited to a few hours a day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129042/original/image-20160701-18300-10h30i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers found that skill level correlated with deliberate practice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/elliotmar/9341848224/in/photolist-fevq1G-8Bk6M2-9LmCCv-4JKUYa-9z9LLN-bXeANq-aDNG5E-qz6kRa-6L3KSe-jxrJas-a3qJfe-7iMYu3-a16kiw-3RsjR-9frfL2-2GmdHC-4k4Ks6-49LM5e-qZTfCX-5dT7Pa-o95zAV-8dCMSj-pcS3LY-6T6F9z-6goNnR-9CgfQ-9XP2Vh-eYtRsR-dC7VgG-aoU5jG-655ev4-a9VYG1-7vKYpV-haB9Bo-5ZWBcP-cNK815-dGhpgU-21VpP-ayhCnT-652GuV-ce7KLQ-3hgViP-83iEFh-oA7FL7-aYxGSR-fecRmV-9vTKJM-81FPpt-gjyvSZ-25TXjs">Elliot Margolies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ericsson and his colleagues’ major discovery was that there was a positive correlation between the skill level of the violinists and the amount of deliberate practice they had accumulated. As deliberate practice increased, skill level increased. </p>
<p>For example, by age 20, the most accomplished group of violinists had accumulated an average of about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice – or about 5,000 hours more than the average for the least accomplished group. In a second study, Ericsson and colleagues replicated the finding in pianists. </p>
<p>On the basis of the studies, these researchers concluded that deliberate practice, rather than talent, is the determining factor for expert performance. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1993-40718-001">They wrote</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We reject any important role for innate ability.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/anders-ericsson-book-interview-peak-secrets-from/">interview</a>, Ericsson further explained that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>we can’t find any sort of limiting factors that people really can’t surpass with the right kind of training. With the exception of body size: You can’t train to be taller.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Is it all about training?</h2>
<p>Based on this evidence, the writer <a href="https://vivipins.com/10000-hours-rule/">Malcolm Gladwell</a> came up with his “10,000-hour rule” – the maxim that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a field. In the scientific literature, however, Ericsson’s views have been highly controversial from the start. </p>
<p>In an early critique, Harvard psychologist and multiple intelligence theorist <a href="https://howardgardner.com/">Howard Gardner</a> <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/50/9/802/">commented</a> that Ericsson’s view required a “blindness” to earlier research on skill acquisition. Developmental psychologist <a href="http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/psych/people/faculty/winner.html">Ellen Winner</a> <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/55/1/159/">added</a> that “Ericsson’s research demonstrated the importance of hard work but did not rule out the role of innate ability.” Renowned giftedness researcher <a href="http://gagnefrancoys.wix.com/dmgt-mddt">Françoys Gagné</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-complexity-of-greatness-9780199794003?cc=us&lang=en&">noted</a> that Ericsson’s view “misses many significant variables.” Cognitive neuroscientist <a href="http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gary/marcus_bio.html">Gary Marcus</a> <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pmu/22/2/185/">observed</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Practice does indeed matter – a lot and in surprising ways. But it would be a logical error to infer from the importance of practice that talent is somehow irrelevant, as if the two were in mutual opposition.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How important is training?</h2>
<p>For our part, working with <a href="http://www.scienceofexpertise.com/">colleagues around the world</a>, we have focused on empirically testing Ericsson and colleagues’ theory to find out more about the relationship between deliberate practice and performance in various domains. </p>
<p><a href="http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Macnamara-et-al.-2014.pdf">A 2014 study</a> led by Case Western Reserve University psychologist <a href="http://psychsciences.case.edu/faculty/brooke-macnamara/">Brooke Macnamara</a> used a statistical tool called “meta-analysis” to aggregate the results of 88 earlier studies involving over 11,000 participants, including studies that Ericsson and colleagues had used to argue for the importance of deliberate practice. </p>
<p>Each study included a measure of some activity that could be interpreted as deliberate practice, as well as a measure of skill level in a domain such as music, chess or sports.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129036/original/image-20160701-18317-1b8ers6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It isn’t all about practice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahdchild/4576793535/in/photolist-7Yrggn-dMjfHR-dMpLR5-dMjdXa-dMjeN4-dMjgyv-dMje64-BJcL8A-dMjefk-dMpNBb-dMjfgv-dMpPDb-65Nn2W-dMpNP1-dMjfuK-dMjdDX-p6Xe7P-dMjepn-7hz3Ur-dMjfYe-dH9qNb-dMjgvz-dMjdhp-g3nJWT-8rNULU-5BNM1o-dMjdwp-dMpPJh-dUErT7-dMjfBK-dMpN7G-dMjeVv-fixcT1-9Qr5S4-dMpPPy-ejgV5y-9Qr5KD-894Ktj-7hCZKS-adQzPH-p7dAFV-9xMXqn-9ZYRdW-fKAc7g-rRWvtK-dZRo3i-g3nRfA-fKSJ37-8RmkJ2-8nSqjj">Ahd Photography</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The study revealed that deliberate practice and skill level correlated positively with each other. In other words, the higher the skill level, the greater the amount of deliberate practice. However, the correlation wasn’t so strong as to warrant the claim that differences in skill level are largely due to deliberate practice. </p>
<p>In concrete terms, a key implication of this discovery is that people may require vastly different amounts of deliberate practice to reach the same level of skill. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://m.pps.sagepub.com/content/11/3/333.short">more recent study</a> synthesized the results of 33 studies to understand the relationship between deliberate practice and performance in sports at a more detailed level. </p>
<p>One important finding was that deliberate practice lost its predictive power at the highest levels of skill. That is, on average, there was almost no difference in accumulated amount of deliberate practice between elite-level athletes, such as Olympians, and subelite athletes, such as contestants in national championships. </p>
<h2>Training isn’t the only factor</h2>
<p>As we discuss in a recent review article with behavioral geneticist <a href="http://ki.se/en/people/mirmos">Miriam Mosing</a>, this evidence tells us that expertise – like virtually all phenomena that psychologists study – is determined by <a href="http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/Ullen2015PsycholBull.pdf">multiple factors</a>. </p>
<p>Training history is certainly an important factor in explaining why some people are more successful than others. No one becomes a world-class performer without practice. People aren’t <em>literally</em> born with the sort of specialized knowledge that underpins skill in domains like music and chess. However, it now seems clear that training isn’t the only important factor in acquiring expertise. Other factors must matter, too.</p>
<p>What might these other factors be? There are likely many, including basic abilities and capacities that are known to be influenced by genes.</p>
<p><a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/06/08/0956797610373933.abstract">In a 2010 study</a> with <a href="https://www.siue.edu/education/psychology/bios/meinzbio.shtml">psychologist Elizabeth Meinz</a>, 57 pianists ranging in skill from beginner to professional estimated the amount of deliberate practice they had accumulated across their musical careers, and took tests of “working memory capacity.” Working memory capacity is the ability to focus one’s attention on information critical to performing a task by filtering out distractions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129039/original/image-20160701-18337-174h4o1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Working memory capacity made a difference while sight-reading.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/275200051/in/photolist-qjtot-8fnGNs-aVKcgK-8kFY9S-4fgm2o-4RBL25-okD4og-84Nc9n-6m89f7-eybvyr-dEajfc-nzzaH9-qsXzSH-6oc2QB-2h8sAs-gbTKK6-aZsZyv-douYZ4-7R9j1S-7R9fTT-dov6E3-dovaxq-7WaGna-8HNF1h-dov1WJ-douUXK-douYeh-a2buU6-douVyk-2Bwp6U-nwgyc8-douWiK-nwgyYZ-a2e8NJ-douWtx-dova4w-douTtr-dov52G-douVZe-nf53gU-a2bqXR-s98XVd-GGFdkj-nuvNSj-rM9PBt-wz5yo5-bsAchM-7i2S99-ph8Ru-cmi7u7">woodleywonderworks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pianists then attempted to sight-read pieces of music (that is, to play the pieces without preparation) on a piano in the lab. The major finding was that working memory capacity was a factor in the pianists’ success in the sight-reading task, even among those with thousands of hours of deliberate practice. </p>
<p>Our research on twins further reveals that the propensity to practice music is influenced by genetic factors. This research compares identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, to fraternal twins, who on average share only 50 percent of their genes. A <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/30/0956797614541990.abstract">key finding</a> of this work is that identical twins are typically more similar to each other in their practice histories, as well as their scores on tests of basic music aptitude, than fraternal twins are to each other. For example, it’s more likely to find a pair of identical twins who have both accumulated over 10,000 hours of practice than a pair of fraternal twins who have both accumulated this amount of practice. </p>
<p>This discovery indicates that, while extensive practice is necessary to become a highly skilled musician, genetic factors influence our willingness to put in that practice. More generally, this research suggests that we gravitate toward and persist at those activities that we have an aptitude for from the outset.</p>
<p>Research by other scientists is beginning to link expert performance to specific genes. In a groundbreaking series of molecular genetic studies, the University of Sydney <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/people/academics/profiles/kathryn.north.php">geneticist Kathryn North</a> and her colleagues found that the ACTN3 gene, which is expressed in fast-twitch muscle fibers, <a href="http://www.geneqol-consortium.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2013/07/MacArthur_ACTN3-on-muscle-function-and-athletic-performance_Exerc-Sport-Sci-Rev-2007.pdf">correlates with high-level success</a> in sprinting events. Based on these findings, North and her colleagues have called ACTN3 a possible <a href="http://www.geneqol-consortium.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2013/07/MacArthur_Evolution-and-function-of-ACTN3_Bioessays-2004.pdf">“gene for speed.”</a></p>
<h2>How can people excel?</h2>
<p>In view of this evidence, <a href="http://scienceofexpertise.com/">we have argued</a> that the richness and complexity of expertise can never be fully understood by focusing on “nature” or “nurture.” </p>
<p>For us, the days of the “experts are born versus made” debate are over. The task before us is to understand the myriad ways that experts are born <em>and</em> made by developing and testing models of expertise that take into account all relevant factors, including not only training but also genetic influences.</p>
<p>From a practical perspective, we believe that this research will provide a scientific foundation for developing sound principles and procedures for helping people develop skills. As <a href="http://thesportsgene.com/">sports science research</a> is already starting to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640410802549751#.V1UPrY-cFS8">demonstrate</a>, it may one day be possible to give people accurate information about the activities in which they are likely to excel, and develop highly individualized training regimens to maximize people’s potential.</p>
<p>Far from discouraging people from following their dreams, this research promises to bring expert performance within the reach of a greater number of people than is currently the case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>D. Zachary Hambrick receives funding from the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research discussed in this article was funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Sven and Dagmar Salén Foundation.</span></em></p>
Practice is important for talent. But, is that all it takes to become an expert?
D. Zachary Hambrick, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
Fredrik Ullén, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54207
2016-02-09T13:31:35Z
2016-02-09T13:31:35Z
Why Leonardo da Vinci was a genius
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110608/original/image-20160208-2586-1hfc7vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Science Museum</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Leonardo da Vinci, as we know, was the epitome of the Renaissance man. We know that he was a genius, a polymath, a pioneer in fields as diverse as anatomy and hydrodynamics. We know that Leonardo invented the tank, the helicopter, the flying machine, the parachute, and the self-powered vehicle. We know that he was a “man ahead of his time” and that his visionary inventions weren’t to be realised for centuries.</p>
<p>Well, not exactly. Leonardo the inventor is subject to legends in much the same way as the Mona Lisa. But the reality beneath the stories is no less exciting, as the Science Museum’s new exhibition <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/leonardo">Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Genius</a> makes abundantly clear.</p>
<p>He was trained in Florence in the 1470s, when the workshops of some major artists not only took on art in every kind of medium but also tasks that we would now classify as engineering – both civil and military. His master, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrea-del-Verrocchio">Andrea del Verrocchio</a>, was famed chiefly as a sculptor, but was also responsible for the soldering and erection of the great copper ball on top of the dome of Florence’s cathedral. This brought the young engineer into direct contact with the lifting and construction devices of the great <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Filippo-Brunelleschi">Filippo Brunelleschi</a>, architect of the dome. </p>
<p>These artist-engineers were employed to produce a wide range of practical machines of the kind that rarely leave their mark in written and drawn records. Leonardo, for instance, produced ingenious designs for the sluices of lock gates. We know about this because of a memorandum in which he speaks of sluices for rivers that he arranged for the Venetians in 1500, when he was visiting the maritime republic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110605/original/image-20160208-2625-mavkbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model of an armoured vehicle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Archivio Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci – Alessandro Nassiri</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leading engineers also indulged in more visionary designs in their treatises. These involved a lot of “visual boasting” aimed at prospective or actual employers. Like all prospectuses, the treatises were designed to make an impression. Many of Leonardo’s most famous designs fall into this category. An example is the so-called “tank”, a kind of wood-and-steel woodlouse fringed by cacophonous arrays of guns, which was designed to scoot across the dusty battlefield. It is high on shock and awe and low on practicality – as the designer and his patron would have realised.</p>
<p>Other famous designs have been misread. The “helicopter” or airscrew, known only in a single thumbnail sketch, cannot have been for manned flight, since the whole machine would have revolved frantically. Rather, it is a device of technological entertainment. The same applies to the spring-driven “car”, which would have scuttled across a town square during a festival carrying a costumed figure, such as an angel. Its distance of travel would have been finite. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110606/original/image-20160208-2634-1m7e3sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The aerial screw.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Claudio Divizia Hemera Thinkstock by Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taking such designs down a peg – from helicopter to entertainment – does nothing to diminish Leonardo’s extraordinary inventiveness. Nobody was ever more adept in envisaging how to solve technical problems, often by transmitting motion in one plane into another using intricate arrays of gears, cams, axles and levers. </p>
<h2>Locating genius</h2>
<p>If we step back from the individual inventions, we can see that his genius an engineer rests on three foundations.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110609/original/image-20160208-2586-1xzssbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Design of a spiral gear for a barrel spring.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first is that he saw clearly how the design of machines must be informed by the mathematical laws of physics rather than just relying upon practice. For instance, he realised that if the power of an unwinding spring diminished according to a mathematical ratio, any device to compensate for this must be designed in accordance with the mathematics. As such, he invented a series of conical and spiral gears that could be mounted on the axle of a barrel-spring to counteract the unwinding.</p>
<p>He was also the first to design separate components that could be deployed in a variety of devices. His “elements of machines” ranged from complex units such as the gears for barrel springs and ring bearings for axles to relatively simple hinges.</p>
<p>And no-one ever drew machines with more attention to reality. The mental “sculpture” that he conducted in his mind was transmitted on to the paper with total conviction. He knew that such “portraits” of devices did not necessarily clarify all the details of construction, and needed to be amplified with drawings of the individual parts. The solid section above the barrel spring brilliantly shows how two cylindrical sleeves at either end of the axle of the conical lantern gear slide on the vertical shaft to accommodate its climb up the helter-skelter ramp.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110613/original/image-20160208-2625-1ou7qk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bird wings, mechanical and natural.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Science Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leonardo’s famous efforts to devise various kinds of flying machines were directed by the emulation of nature – not literally to imitate a bird, but to apply the principles of bird flight to endow man with the capacity to fly in his own way. His genius lay in his aspiration to create “a second nature in the world”: his dual mastery of engineering design and natural law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Kemp does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
He may not have invented the helicopter, but the real man is more than worthy of the myth.
Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/14998
2013-06-06T20:41:50Z
2013-06-06T20:41:50Z
Einstein to Weinstein: the lone genius is an exception to the rule
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25144/original/rfxqytxc-1370498534.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Albert Einstein was considered to be a 'lone genius' – but this was not the case, and it's certainly not the norm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">tsweden</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Developing a Theory of Everything is physics’ Holy Grail. So could it have been completed in recent weeks? And by an outsider, working alone?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25135/original/k37mndrm-1370494419.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Eric Weinstein - the new Einstein?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>American mathematical physicist-turned-hedge-fund-consultant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein">Eric Weinstein</a> is in the (very) early stages of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/23/eric-weinstein-answer-physics-problems">revealing to the public</a> his homemade <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/may/23/roll-over-einstein-meet-weinstein">theory of everything</a>, developed over two decades, alone, in his spare time.</p>
<p>I haven’t attended Weinstein’s lectures and I haven’t seen his work (<a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23595-weinsteins-theory-of-everything-is-probably-nothing.html">very few people have so far</a>), so I’m not going to comment on its genius or lack thereof. Nor will I comment on the media attention <em>per se</em>, as <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2013/05/24/dear-guardian-youve-been-played/">others</a> have done <a href="http://telescoper.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-curious-case-of-weinsteins-theory/">plenty</a> of <a href="http://ronininstitute.org/an-outsiders-theory-of-everything/608/">that</a>. </p>
<p>But I will say the Weinstein lone-genius model of theoretical physics is in stark contrast to how theoretical physics is nearly always done.</p>
<h2>But … Einstein!</h2>
<p>One of the reasons Einstein carries such a hefty cultural weight is that he, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton">Newton</a> a few centuries before him, appears to have basically single-handedly invented a fundamentally new view of the universe. </p>
<p>Newton did it over the course of 18 months, starting in 1665 while isolated to avoid the Plague, revolutionising optics and gravity, and <a href="http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Ec22m025c/history.html">inventing calculus</a> along the way. </p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Recuerdos de Pandora</span></span>
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<p>Einstein’s turn came in his “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_Mirabilis_papers">Annus Mirabilus</a>” (miracle year) in 1905, when he published four groundbreaking papers and a PhD thesis, touching on optics, the size and motions of atoms, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity">theory of special relativity</a>. </p>
<p>Einstein is frequently depicted as having been completely cut off from the academic establishment during this time – and being “just a patent clerk”. </p>
<p>But, although he was certainly not a working academic physicist, he still had connections with the community, people to bounce ideas off and a (stalled) PhD-in-progress at the University of Zurich. </p>
<p>He is, I will grant, probably the best example in the modern era of a theoretical physicist revolutionising science from outside “the establishment”. In fact, he’s the only one I can think of.</p>
<h2>“Hey, who invented quantum mechanics?”</h2>
<p>I asked this question of a colleague of mine while writing this, not because I thought he’d have a single answer, but because I was curious what the list might look like. There are a few people who should probably get some credit:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell">Maxwell</a>, who first formulated the <a href="http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/maxeq.html">basic equations of electromagnetism</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1925/hertz-bio.html">Hertz</a>, an experimentalist who helped demonstrate the photoelectric effect</li>
<li><a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1918/planck-bio.html">Planck</a>, who was so important to quantum theory that its most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_constant">fundamental constant</a> is named after him</li>
<li><a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html">Einstein</a>, who first explained the photoelectric effect from a theoretical point of view</li>
<li>or <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1945/pauli-bio.html">Pauli</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-heisenbergs-uncertainty-principle-7512">Heisenberg</a>, or <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html">Bohr</a>, or <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1920/nernst-bio.html">Nernst</a>, or <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/schrodinger-bio.html">Schrödinger</a> … </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-quantum-physics-570">Quantum mechanics</a> is a great illustration of the fact that it doesn’t take a lone iconoclast to revolutionise our understanding of the universe. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25146/original/dmyt7hht-1370499334.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kennedy Goodkey</span></span>
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<p>Even huge breakthroughs that fundamentally change how we see and do physics can – and do – come about in a series of incremental steps. Experimentalists see something odd in their experiments, theorists propose possible explanations, experimentalists go back and test the consequences of each theory, and the cycle begins again. </p>
<p>This has happened a number of times since Einstein’s era. In addition to quantum mechanics, we’ve seen the appearance of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-standard-model-of-particle-physics-2539">Standard Model of Particle Physics</a>, <a href="http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/qft.html">quantum field theory</a>, the <a href="http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/c/concordance+model">concordance model of cosmology</a> (including <a href="http://astrokatie.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/the-art-of-darkness.html">dark matter</a> and <a href="http://astrokatie.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/you-dont-have-to-blow-up-universe-to-be.html">dark energy</a>), and the as-yet purely theoretical frameworks of <a href="http://hitoshi.berkeley.edu/public_html/susy/susy.html">supersymmetry</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-string-theory-2983">string theory</a>. </p>
<p>None of these advances could be attributed to one person, nor did they generally involve people working in isolation on theories of their very own. </p>
<h2>So how does it usually work?</h2>
<p>Physics is, these days, an immensely collaborative field. There are a <a href="http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&cc=Conferences&p=fin+date+%3E+today&sf=year&so=a">lot of conferences</a> as well as institutes and workshops and collaboration visits; there are endless seminars and dissections of research papers. </p>
<p>Newly-built physics institutes tend to have hallways lined with blackboards or dry-erase-glass cubicles to get people out of their offices to collaborate. We talk to each other, not because we are inherently very social (though <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0_53RCZIZM">a lot of us</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52CL3-gWyJs">are</a>), but because it’s a really productive way to proceed. </p>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fellowship of the Rich</span></span>
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<p>Personally, I find I think better when I’m explaining my ideas to someone. Some people, after staring at the same equations for days, just need to get the math written down and show it to other people to make sure it really makes sense. Even more importantly, we’re not all experts on all areas of physics. </p>
<p>One person might have spent four years working on a particular quantum mechanical process in the early universe while another might be an expert on strong-field gravitation, and together they can create a much clearer picture of how, say, how <a href="https://theconversation.com/rippling-space-time-how-to-catch-einsteins-gravitational-waves-7058">gravitational waves</a> might be produced right after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-where-we-started-tracing-the-origins-of-galaxies-3776">Big Bang</a>. </p>
<p>And here I’m just talking about pure theory - if you want to actually test theories, you have to be in touch with experimentalists and observers and find out what kind of tools they have available. </p>
<p>So why are we hearing about Weinstein’s (still unpublished) ideas now, for the first time? I don’t know. Maybe he had a really good reason not to talk to other physicists about his work.</p>
<p>Perhaps he was worried it might be wrong and didn’t want to embarrass himself, or perhaps he was worried it might be right and he’d be scooped or not get all the credit. Or maybe he just doesn’t like to talk to physicists all that much. </p>
<p>It’s even possible he thought his ideas were so revolutionary that no one else would understand. But I kind of doubt that. </p>
<p>We physicists love finding new ways to think. We love stretching our minds and seeing things from another point of view. It’s why we do the work we do - and it’s why we spend so much time talking to each other about it.</p>
<p><br>
<em>A version of this article appeared on <a href="http://astrokatie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-lone-genius-hypothesis.html">The Universe, in Theory</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/14998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine J Mack receives funding from the Australian Research Council in the form of a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award.</span></em></p>
Developing a Theory of Everything is physics’ Holy Grail. So could it have been completed in recent weeks? And by an outsider, working alone? American mathematical physicist-turned-hedge-fund-consultant…
Katherine J Mack, DECRA Fellow, Astrophysics, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.