The Myth of the Myth of the Lone Genius

One unexpected emergent property of the technium is that most inventions and innovations are co-invented multiple times, simultaneously and independently. That is, more than one person will honestly invent the next new thing about the same time. This means that the popular image of the lone mad inventor or heroic scientist is just wrong. For insta

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These findings suggest that it might be time to rethink Thomas Edison’s famous inspiration equation, which suggests that genius is “1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” As most creative people are well aware, this is a gross oversimplification. For one, we’ve seen that inspiration and effort feed off of each other in a dynamic interp

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The thesis seems to be that each advance, from the Pythagorean Theorem to Marxism to the atom bomb to the Boeing 747, came ultimately from one person’s desire to express their individuality. This claim—more believable in the case of an oil painting than in the invention of TNT—is, as we’ve seen, the kernel of the postwar concept of creativity itsel

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Now consider our current situation. Despite all the language professing otherwise, in general the education system of the United States is based entirely on genetic determinism. A child is born assumed to have innate traits, including, for example, a preference as to what they want to be when they grow up (somehow just waiting fully-formed inside o... See more

Apple co‑founder Steve Wozniak on why invention is a solitary sport:

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me ... they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone .... I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not... See more