Introduction: Marty Neumeier’s Rules of Genius
A few years ago, I had the privilege of attending a presentation delivered by Marty Neumeier on the Rules of Genius. The talk was based on his book, The 46 Rules of Genius: An Innovator's Guide to Creativity (Voices That Matter)
. The presentation was excellent and gave me much food for thought, so I wanted to share the highlights with you.
What is Genius?
“Anyone who turns insights into innovation and in the process changes our view of what is possible.”
Marty Neumeier cautioned the audience to become a genius in a small slice of the world. That means that you shouldn’t try to be all things to everyone. He also said that we should learn from what artists do. This is interesting. I listened to the recording of the Creative Reading course that William S. Burroughs led.
In the lecture, the author of Naked Lunch commented that art is 50 years ahead of writing. What this means to me is that it is important to look at art and art techniques to get a sense of future trends.
One thought provoking point from the Rules of Genius event is that people and machine are taking on each other. People are taking machines into their bodies and machines are becoming more humanlike. Neumeier mentioned robots that are being manufactured in Japan that are very humanlike.
In fact, there was a live theater performance and the robots looked so much like humans that the audience didn’t know until the next day when they read about it in the media. This resonated with me because at the time, I was reading I, Robot
by Isaac Asimov, which was published in 1950. The story is set in 2061. But there are many flashbacks, with robots that can mind read, and those that are so advanced that they refuse to take orders from humans. This makes you wonder if this is the direction that robotics is going.
Nuggets from Rules of Genius
- It is important to keep on learning.
- Original work is not “copyable”.
-
Knowledge X Imagination = Originality
- If you want to be original, you have to invent and build from scratch.
- Some detriment to innovation:
- Unexamined beliefs
- Shop mentality
- Fear of failure
Have you read?
Learning How to Learn https://theinvisiblementor.com/learning-how-to-learn/
Learning to Learn https://theinvisiblementor.com/learning-to-learn/
The 46 Rules of Genius by Marty Neumeier, Book Review
How to Become a Genius – Marty Neumeier’s Rules of Genius
Rule 25: Learn How to Learn
Find your best way of learning and become an auto-didact –self-learning and self-teaching. That is what I am doing with my informal liberal arts education. Focus on creative work and up-skill often to prevent yourself from being replaced.
Rule 26: Start with Curiosity, not Belief
People don’t question enough, start questioning things and do not accept the status quo.
Rule 27: Do Your Own Projects
Something amazing happens when you work on your own projects. I can attest to that! If you work full-time, create projects to work on over the weekend. When you have a sense of purpose, your mind becomes magnetized.
Rule 28: Keep a Hero File
If you see something that you wish you had done, clip the information and store in a file. And whenever you work on a project, make sure you do it as good as the projects in your hero file.
Rule 29: Invest in Your Originality
Producing original work lies at the heart of originality.
Rule 30: Learn Strategically
There is so much to learn, but you will not be able to learn everything. Learn the things you need to learn. This is a tough lesson I learned when I first started my informal liberal arts education.
Rule 31: Shore Up Your Weaknesses
Improve your weaknesses so that they do not hold you back.
Rule 32: Spend Long Hours in the Joy Zone
When learning is fun, you learn faster.
Rule 33: Make Educational Mistakes
Fail big because mistakes are lessons learned. If you do not make any mistakes that means you are not experimenting enough.
Rule 34: Seek Instructive Criticism
Seek feedback from people who can criticize instructively and not constructively.
Rule 35: Fuel Your Passion
Fuel your cycle of learning.
Rule 1: Break the Rules
You are told, often in writing, not to break the rules until you understand them, and on the other hand, you also hear that there are no rules. Which is correct? This dilemma is called the Genius Paradox, which Marty Neumeier deals with in his book, The 46 Rules of Genius.
Rule 46: Make New Rules
The first Rule is to break the rules and the last rule is to replace them with your Rules.
These are some of the rules discussed in The 46 Rules of Genius: An Innovator's Guide to Creativity (Voices That Matter) by Marty Neumeier.
Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and DesignThe Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovationThe Brand Flip: Why customers now run companies and how to profit from it (Voices That Matter)The 46 Rules of Genius: An Innovator's Guide to Creativity (Voices That Matter)Metaskills: Five Talents for the Robotic AgeBRAND A-Z: An interactive dictionary of 1,000 essential brand termsZagMarty Neumeier's INNOVATION TOOLKIT
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