ALTERNATE THE MIND THROUGH “THE CURRENT”

Charles Darwin and the Current—definition of “the Current”—our primitive ancestors and the Current—short-circuiting the Current—Buckminster Fuller and artifacts—the importance of creating objects—feedback loop

D. ALTER YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Typical patterns of thinking to alter

Looking at the “what” instead of the “how”

Avoiding shorthand—focusing on the structure—getting a feel for the whole—the importance of relationships in science

Rushing to generalities and ignoring details

Shifting from the macro to the micro—Charles Darwin and the micro-study of barnacles—Leonardo da Vinci’s attention to micro-detail in painting—letting details guide you

Confirming paradigms and ignoring anomalies

Overdependence on paradigms—the value of anomalies—Marie Curie and the anomaly of radioactivity—the founders of Google and anomalies—anomalies fueling evolution

Fixating on what is present, ignoring what is absent

Sherlock Holmes and negative cues—Gowland Hopkins, negative cues, and scurvy—meeting unfulfilled needs—Henry Ford, negative cues, and the assembly line—reversing your emotional perspective—setbacks as opportunities

E. REVERT TO PRIMAL FORMS OF INTELLIGENCE

The intelligence of our primitive ancestors—the human brain as a multiuse instrument—grammar as a limitation—thinking beyond language—examples of famous people who thought in images—the limitations of memory—using diagrams and models—Schiller, Einstein, Samuel Johnson, and synesthesia

Step Three: The Creative Breakthrough—
Tension and Insight

The high internal standards of Masters—letting go—Einstein, letting go, and the discovery of relativity—Richard Wagner completing his opera in a dream—how the brain reaches peaks of creativity—blocks that precede enlightenment—Evariste Galois’s sudden burst of genius—the need for tension—manufacturing deadlines—Thomas Edison’s manufacture of pressure

Emotional Pitfalls

Complacency

Conservatism

Dependency

Impatience

Grandiosity

Inflexibility

STRATEGIES FOR THE CREATIVE-ACTIVE PHASE

1. The Authentic Voice
John Coltrane

2. The Fact of Great Yield
V. S. Ramachandran

3. Mechanical Intelligence
The Wright brothers

4. Natural Powers
Santiago Calatrava

5. The Open Field
Martha Graham

6. The High End
Yoky Matsuoka

7. The Evolutionary Hijack
Paul Graham

8. Dimensional Thinking
Jean-François Champollion

9. Alchemical Creativity and the Unconscious
Teresita Fernández

REVERSAL

John Coltrane—August Strindberg

VI.

FUSE THE INTUITIVE WITH
THE RATIONAL: MASTERY

All of us have access to a higher form of intelligence, one that can allow us to see more of the world, to anticipate trends, to respond with speed and accuracy to any circumstance. This intelligence is cultivated by deeply immersing ourselves in a field of study and staying true to our inclinations, no matter how unconventional our approach might seem to others. This power is what our brains were designed to attain, and we will be naturally led to this type of intelligence if we follow our inclinations to their ultimate ends.

THE THIRD TRANSFORMATION

Marcel Proust

KEYS TO MASTERY

Examples of Masters seeing more—the fingertip feel—a power that is mystified— high-level intuition—the Dynamic—gaining an intuitive feel for the whole—Jane Goodall’s feel for chimpanzees—Erwin Rommel’s feel for battle—the fusing of the rational and the intuitive—mastery at 20,000 hours—time as a crucial factor—make study time qualitatively rich—interpretation of Proust story

The Roots of Masterly Intuition

The Ammophila wasp—intuition and our primitive ancestors—mnemonic networks in the brain—Bobby Fischer and memory traces—engaging with complexity—gaining a tolerance for chaos—increasing memory capacity—examples of high-level intuition and youthfulness

The Return to Reality

Overview of evolution from the beginning—the interconnectedness of all life—the ultimate reality—our modern Renaissance—returning to the whole—the altered brain of the Master

STRATEGIES FOR ATTAINING MASTERY

1. Connect to your environment—Primal Powers
The Caroline Islanders

2. Play to your strengths—Supreme Focus
A. Albert Einstein
B. Temple Grandin

3. Transform yourself through practice—
The Fingertip Feel
Cesar Rodriguez

4. Internalize the details—The Life Force
Leonardo da Vinci

5. Widen your vision—The Global Perspective
Freddie Roach

6. Submit to the other—The Inside-out Perspective
Daniel Everett

7. Synthesize all forms of knowledge—
The Universal Man/Woman
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

REVERSAL

The false self—the true self—genius demystified—your purpose in life—realizing your potential

CONTEMPORARY MASTER
BIOGRAPHIES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

THE ULTIMATE POWER

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

There exists a form of power and intelligence that represents the high point of human potential. It is the source of the greatest achievements and discoveries in history. It is an intelligence that is not taught in our schools nor analyzed by professors, but almost all of us, at some point, have had glimpses of it in our own experience. It often comes to us in a period of tension—facing a deadline, the urgent need to solve a problem, a crisis of sorts.