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NOTE: Italic page references indicate figures.
“10,000-hour rule,” 18–19
academic grades, 23–25
Accidental Billionaires, The (Mezrich), 202
ACT tests, 23–24, 26–27
Adams, John, 58
adult book clubs, 97
adversity, 148–51
Aesop’s Fables, 163
“aha” moments, 230, 251, 252
Alcott, Louisa May, 47, 105–6, 150, 232
Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), 74, 114
Allegri, Gregorio, 50–51
Allen, Woody, 217
Alsop, Marin, 57
Alvarez, Luis, 26
Amazon, 5, 75, 143, 148, 159, 185, 244
analogies, 161, 183
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 205
Apple, 75, 108, 135–36, 160, 170, 211–13
Apple Genius Bar, 2
Archimedes, 158, 225
Aristotle, 114, 160–61, 204, 232
Ascham, Roger, 77
Asimov, Isaac, 95, 247
asking questions, 96
Asperger, Hans, 128
Asperger’s syndrome, 128, 130, 131
attention deficit disorder (ADD), 129–30, 131
Atwood, Margaret, 35, 222–23
Austen, Jane, 16, 32, 35
autism, 128, 130–31
autistic savants, 127
Avery, Oswald, 194
Baby Einstein, 2, 60–61
Baby Mozart, 60–61
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 15, 27, 115, 175–76, 192, 216, 252
Bacon, Francis, 78
Bakker, Nienke, 117
Balanchine, George, 27, 148, 236
Baldwin, Neil, 214
Banaji, Mahzarin, 46
Bandello, Matteo, 238
Banksy, 145–46, 150
Barrie, J. M., 71
Baudelaire, Charles, 76
Beagle, HMS, 109–10, 166, 167
Beatles, the, 72, 228
Beautiful Mind, A (movie), 115–16
Becquerel, Henri, 102
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 4, 7, 27, 123–25, 176, 251; bipolar disorder, 124; deafness, 113, 115, 123–25, 131, 147; dreams and relaxation, 235; heredity, 12–13; passion, 108; productivity, 216
Bell, Quentin, 118
Belleville, Bob, 212
Bellow, Saul, 248
Benedict XIII, Pope, 42
Berlatier, Gabrielle, 113
Berners-Lee, Tim, 141, 159
Bernstein, Aaron, 93–94
Bezos, Jeff, 5, 7, 99, 204;
academic record, 25; childlike imagination, 75; concentration, 244; cross-border thinking, 159, 167; curiosity, 79, 93; luck, 192; oppositional thinking, 173, 185, 190; risk taking, 143, 148
bifocals, 156
Biles, Simone, 13–14, 21
Binet, Alfred, 22
biological inheritance, 11, 13–22
bipolar disorder, 114–20, 124
birth order, 16
black holes, 136–37
“blind-spot bias,” 46
Blue Origin, 93
“blueprint theory” of genius, 16
Blum, Irving, 143
Blum, Joel, 129
Bold Ruler (horse), 15
Boleyn, Anne, 77
Boltzmann, Ludwig, 94
Bonheur, Rosa, 39
Boscovich, Rogerio, 91
Brahms, Johannes, 8, 115, 204, 246, 249
brain size, 37
Brancusi, Constantin, 205
Branson, Richard, 7, 95
Breasted, James Henry, 41–42
Brennan, Chrisann, 212
Brennan-Jobs, Lisa, 212
Brin, Sergey, 26, 204, 205
Broca, Paul de, 37
Broken Column, The (Kahlo), 146, 147
Brontë, Charlotte, 35, 45, 58, 192
Brontë, Emily, 35, 58, 192
Brooks, David, 18
Bruce, Lenny, 73–74
Bruno, Giordano, 138
Buck, Pearl S., 35, 215–16
Buddhism, 188
Buffett, Warren, 1, 7
Bunyan, John, 87
Burton, Tim, 44
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 36, 44, 63, 65, 129
Camden, William, 78
Capra, Fritjof, 244
Caravaggio, 218
Carey, Mariah, 13
Carlin, George, 73–74
Carlsen, Magnus, 115
Carmontelle, Louis Carrogis de, 53, 54
Carrie (King), 149
Carroll, Lewis (Charles Dodgson), 74, 114
Carver, George Washington, 205
Catch-22 (Heller), 150
Cavallino, Bernardo, 42
Cervantes, Miguel de, 94
Cézanne, Paul, 19–21, 52, 164, 165
Chagall, Marc, 205
Chain, Ernst, 200
Chaplin, Charlie, 231
Chappelle, Dave, 73–74
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 55–56
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 3
Cheever, John, 247–48
Chen, Nathan, 21–22
Chernow, Ron, 158
Chiang Kai-shek, 143
Child Genius (TV show), 51–52
childlike imagination, 64–76
Chopin, Frédéric, 19
Christianity, 38
Christie, Agatha, 248–49
Churchill, Winston, 26, 123, 136, 187, 199, 251
cities and genius, 204–7
Cleese, John, 74
Clinton, Bill, 126, 127
Close, Chuck, 123, 125–27, 217; Bill Clinton, 126, 127; daily work ethic, 247; spinal artery collapse, 125–27, 130, 147
Coleman, Debi, 212
Columbus, Christopher, 141, 173
Communist Manifesto, The (Marx), 141
compulsion, 106
compulsive productivity, 216
concentration, 237–49
Conduitt, John, 108
Confucius (Confucianism), 38, 100, 247
contrarian action, 173–90
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 138
Copland, Aaron, 205
copyright law, 165
Couric, Katie, 99
Coursera, 97
COVID-19 pandemic, 97, 139
Creating Minds (Gardner), 60
“creative destruction,” 211
creative epicenters, 204–7
creative maladjustment, 113–33
creativity, 6–7, 27, 143, 160; and childlike mind, 68, 71; and exercise, 232–33; and mental illness, 114, 116
“creativity zones,” 75
Crick, Francis, 64, 174, 194–97, 204
CRISPR, 197
Crosby, Bing, 13
cross-border thinking, 153–71
Crystal, Billy, 128
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 105
Cuban, Mark, 158
Cunningham, Barry, 67–68, 149
Curie, Marie, 22, 32, 64, 101–5, 192, 210; curiosity, 7; education and academic record, 25, 39; IQ, 22–23; passion and perseverance, 47, 101–5, 106; risk taking, 143
Curie, Pierre, 101, 102, 104
curiosity, 77–97
daemon, 3
daily ritual, 9, 247–49
Dale, Henry Hallett, 229
Dalí, Salvador, 227
Dante Alighieri, 3
Darwin, Charles, 52–53, 109–10, 141, 165–67, 192, 210, 251; concentration, 249; cross-border thinking, 165–67; dogs, 36; heredity and academic record, 12, 26; jokes, 187; passion, 109–10
Darwin, Erasmus, 65, 166
Da Vinci, Leonardo, 3, 8, 12, 13, 80–86, 84, 210; concentration, 237, 238–39, 244; curiosity, 80–86, 95, 154; genius gene, 2; The Last Supper, 238–39; longevity, 132; luck, 193–94; Mona Lisa, 82–83, 83, 180, 193–94; music and math, 161; obsession, 216; oppositional thinking, 177, 180; St. John the Baptist, 81, 82; Virgin and Child, 177, 178, 179, 180
Day-Lewis, Daniel, 1
daylight saving time, 156
deafness, 124–25
De Beauvoir, Simone, 12
Debussy, Claude, 205
Defoe, Daniel, 87
DeGeneres, Ellen, 99
depression, 129
determination, 106
Deutscher, Alma, 49–50, 56–57
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 114, 130
Dickens, Charles, 47, 115, 204, 232, 248
disabilities, 124–31, 147
discontent, 141–42
Disney, Walt, 26, 72–73, 75, 234, 251
DNA, 174, 194–97
Doudna, Jennifer, 197
Douglass, Frederick, 17
dreams, 65, 69–70, 225–30, 234–35
Dreyfus, Richard, 135–36
Dryden, John, 114
Duchesne, Ernest, 200
Dvořák, Antonín, 52
Dylan, Bob, 95
Eastman School of Music, 8, 17–18
Edison, Mary Stilwell, 213–14
Edison, Thomas, 4, 110–11, 141, 167–69, 168, 251; academic record, 26; cross-border thinking, 167–69; among dropouts, 95–96; education, 94–97, 161–63; failures, 111, 148; luck, 192; obsession, 213–14, 215, 216; passion, 110–11; standardized tests, 23–24, 25–27; work ethic, 47, 110–11
EdX, 97
Eiffel, Gustave, 141
Einstein, Albert, 4, 6, 27, 30, 64, 69–71, 159, 205, 252; brain study, 6; childlike imagination, 69–71, 76; concentration, 239–40, 248, 249; cross-border thinking, 154, 159, 161, 170; curiosity, 79, 93–95; education, 26, 59, 60, 94–95; gender bias, 37–38; genius gene, 2; heredity, 16; jokes, 187; nonconformity, 136–37, 141; obsession, 209, 215, 216; oppositional thinking, 181–83; relaxation, 230–31, 205; specialization, 170–71
Einstein, Hans Albert, 231
Eliot, George, 1–2, 35
Eliot, T. S., 60
Elizabeth I of England, 8, 16, 77–79, 95, 97, 197–98
Ellington, Duke, 12
Ellis, Havelock, 16
Ellison, Larry, 204
“emergenesis,” 16
Enders, John, 139
Engel, Susan, 92
Enriques, Adriana, 71
epigenetics, 16–17
Equal Opportunity Credit Act, 40
Ericsson, Anders, 18–19
Eve, 38
evolution, 93, 110, 141, 165–67
exercise, 232–33
face blindness, 126–27
Facebook, 201–4, 210, 222–24
failure, 148–51
Faraday, Michael, 52, 95, 192, 204
Faulkner, William, 216, 251
Faust (Goethe), 12, 91, 233, 234
fearlessness, 96, 155, 170
Federal Reserve, 144, 211
Federer, Roger, 1, 7
Ferguson, Kitty, 245, 246
Feynman, Richard, 28
Fischer, Bobby, 115, 242
Fitzgerald, Ella, 13
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 150, 180–81, 205
Fleming, Alexander, 198–200, 210
Florey, Howard, 200
“flow,” 105, 107
Flow (Csikszentmihalyi), 105
Fonda, Jane, 71
Ford, Henry, 184
“fourth wall,” 240–41
“Fox and the Hedgehog, The” (fable), 153–54, 160, 167, 169
Frank, Anne, 87
Frankenstein (movie), 64
Frankenstein (Shelley), 4, 35, 63–67
Franklin, Aretha, 45
Franklin, Benjamin, 65, 87–89, 154, 155–57, 174, 186, 192
Franklin, Rosalind, 32, 44, 194–97
Franklin Gothic type, 156
Franklin phonetic alphabet, 157
Franklin stove, 156
Freud, Sigmund, 27, 60, 216; academic record, 25; curiosity, 79–80, 81–82; dreams, 225–26; jokes, 186; luck, 205; passion, 100; sublimation, 81–82
Fry, Art, 159
Fuller, Buckminster, 61
Galileo Galilei, 136, 137–39
Galton, Francis, 14–15, 16
Galvani, Luigi, 65
Gandhi, Mahatma, 27, 60, 136, 189–90
gaokao, 26, 27, 28
Gardner, Howard, 27, 60
Gates, Bill, 17, 51, 88, 95, 203, 204, 232
Gauguin, Paul, 100, 113, 217
Gauss, Johann Carl Friedrich, 174–75
gayness and sublimation, 81–82
Geisel, Theodor Seuss, 149
Gellhorn, Martha, 209
gender bias, 31–48
gender pay gap, 45
General Electric (GE), 168
general relativity, 70, 71, 94, 136–37, 154, 231, 252
genetics, 2, 13, 16–17
genius: definitions of, 2–3, 4–7
“Genius Anti-inertia Law,” 205
Genius Aptitude Test (GAT), 28
“genius gene,” 2
Genius Junior (TV show), 52
“genius test,” 26
Gentileschi, Artemisia, 42–44, 43 Gentner, Dedre, 161
Gilot, Françoise, 218–22, 238
Girl with a Balloon (Banksy), 145–46
Gladwell, Malcolm, 18
glass harmonica, 156
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 12, 91, 233, 234
Goncourt, Edmond de, 210, 253
Google, 25, 26, 48, 75, 132
Gorky, Maxim, 17
Gottlieb, Gilbert, 17
Gould, Stephen Jay, 23, 76
Graduate Record Exam (GRE), 28–29
Graham, Martha, 27, 60, 123
Grandma Moses, 100
Grant, Adam, 25
Great Gatsby, The (Fitzgerald), 150
Greatness (Simonton), 48
Greenberg, Jay, 49–50, 56–57
Greenspan, Alan, 211
Greenwald, Anthony, 46
grit, 47, 106, 168
Grit (Duckworth), 47
Gulf Stream, 157
Gurría, José Ángel, 40
Gutenberg, Johannes, 158
Hahn, Otto, 44
Hale, Bruce, 181
Hamilton (musical), 144, 158, 205, 234
Hamilton, Alexander, 144, 158, 205
Handmaid’s Tale, The (Atwood), 222–23
Hanken, Jerry, 241–42
Harrison, George, 228
Harvard University, 8, 29, 39
Harvey, Thomas, 2
Hatshepsut, 41, 41–42
Hawking, Stephen, 1, 27, 174, 215, 244–46, 251; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 130, 147, 245–46; concentration, 244–46; gender bias, 37; on IQ, 22
Haydn, Franz Joseph, 176, 204
Heisenberg, Werner, 161
Heller, Joseph, 150
Hemingway, Ernest, 47, 115, 118, 150, 205, 209, 247
Henry VIII of England, 77
Hereditary Genius (Galton), 14–15, 16
heredity, 11, 13–22
Hertzfeld, Andy, 213
Hess, Robert, 241–43, 243–44
Hidden Figures (Shetterly), 45
Hildegard of Bingen, 42, 115
Hinduism, 38
homosexual passion, 81–82
Huffington, Arianna, 222
Hugo, Victor, 4, 248
Hulbert, Ann, 61
Hume, David, 94
Hungry Mind, The (Engel), 92
Huxley, Aldous, 72, 215
Huygens, Christiaan, 181–82
Imitation Game, The (movie), 128 “implicit bias,” 46
In Search of Greatness (documentary), 100
“intelligence,” 5
intelligence tests, 22–27
Intelligence Trap, The (Robson), 169
Interpretation of Dreams, The (Freud), 225–26
IQ (intelligence quotient), 22–30, 92
Isaacson, Walter, 211, 212
Islam, 38
Jackson, Andrew, 144
Jackson, Michael, 13, 71–72, 217
James, E. L., 35
James, P. D., 35, 181
Jamison, Kay Redfield, 114–15
Jenner, Edward, 136–37, 173
Jesus Christ, 136
Joan of Arc, 3, 136, 191
Jobs, Lisa, 108
Jobs, Steve, 5, 211–13; cross-border thinking, 160, 170; education and academic record, 26, 95, 251–52; failure, 148; obsession, 211–13; passion, 108; rebelliousness, 135–36, 141, 143, 148, 152
Joel, Billy, 228
Johnson, Boris, 78
Johnson, Edward, 214
Johnson, Lonnie, 159
Johnson, Samuel, 36, 57, 153
Joke and Its Relationship to the Unconscious, The (Freud), 186
jokes, 186–88
Joliot-Curie, Irène, 15, 105
Jonson, Ben, 95
Joyce, James, 27, 205, 243
Judaism, 38, 188
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), 11–12, 224
Junto Club, 87, 94
Kahlo, Frida, 16, 74, 104, 132, 146–48; The Broken Column, 146, 147
Kahneman, Daniel, 18, 169–70
Kandel, Eric, 126–27
Kandinsky, Wassily, 12
Kant, Immanuel, 6
Kardashian, Kim, 1
Karloff, Boris, 64
Kauffman, Angelica, 38–39
Kaufman, Scott, 230
Keane, Margaret, 44
Keller, Helen, 87
Keynes, John Maynard, 106–7, 241
Khokhlova, Olga, 218, 219, 221–22
Kim Jong Un, 1
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1, 27, 60, 131, 136, 137, 187, 188–90, 192
King, Stephen, 17, 149, 227, 247
Koestler, Arthur, 224
Kusama, Yayoi, 115, 120–22, 121, 123, 131, 205, 247
Kuti, Fela, 4
Lady Gaga, 7, 12, 26, 58, 95, 154–55
Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 166
Lamb, Caroline, 63
Laporte, Geneviève, 219
Last Supper, The (da Vinci), 238–39
Lee, Harper, 35
left-handedness, 177
Leibniz, Gottfried, 214–15
Lennon, John, 228, 251
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Picasso), 123, 164, 165
Levant, Oscar, 188
Lewy body dementia (LBD), 129
light bulb, 4, 167, 213
lightning rod, 156
Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 60, 95, 192
Lipton, James, 128–29
listening, 96; to music, 60, 225
Little, Christopher, 35
Little Women (Alcott), 105–6, 150, 232
Loewi, Otto, 229–30, 252
Lombroso, Cesare, 114
long arm (grabber), 156
Lorentz, Hendrik, 94
Lovelace, Ada, 32, 44
Lowell, Robert, 123
Lucas, George, 180
luck, 22, 44, 101, 191–207
lust for learning, 77–97
Luther, Martin, 136, 140–41
Ma, Jack, 7, 26, 95, 157–58, 251
Ma, Yo-Yo, 1, 7, 52
Maar, Dora, 218, 219, 220, 220, 222
MacKinnon, Donald, 163, 169
“mad geniuses,” 113–20
Magic Flute, The (Mozart), 74–75
Mahler, Alma, 40
Mahler, Gustav, 40, 204–5
Malthus, Thomas, 166
Mandela, Nelson, 136
manic depression, 114–20
Man of Genius, The (Lombroso), 114
Man Who Knew Infinity, The (movie), 128
Many Traits Quotient (MQ’s), 27–28, 30
Mao Zedong, 143
Martin, George, 228
Marx, Groucho, 252
Marx, Karl, 141
math and music, components of, 161–63
Matisse, Marguerite, 16
Maxwell, James Clerk, 58, 94, 115, 182, 249
McBride, Michael, 199
McCartney, Paul, 71–72, 115, 228
McCormick, Cyrus, 158
McNamee, Roger, 223
medical catheter, 156
Meitner, Lise, 44
Melville, Herman, 118, 150
Mendel, Gregor, 16, 205
Mendeleev, Dmitri, 17, 227
Mendelssohn, Fanny, 33, 40
MENSA, 22, 51
mental disorders, 114–22, 241
mentors, 33, 46, 59–60, 252
Meredith, Rudy, 29
Merkel, Angela, 60
Mestral, George de, 159
Mezrich, Ben, 202
Michaelis, David, 237
Michelangelo, 3, 12, 17, 27, 85, 132, 243
Mickey Mouse, 72–73, 76, 234
Mill, John Stuart, 51, 105, 206
Miller, Zell, 61
Milton, John, 34, 147
Minotaur Leaning over a Sleeping Girl (Picasso), 220, 221
Miranda, Lin-Manuel, 144, 158, 205, 234
Miró, Joan, 205
misfits, 135–52
misogyny, 36–37
Missing Piece, The (Silverstein), 101
Moby-Dick (Melville), 118, 150
Mona Lisa (da Vinci), 82–83, 83, 180, 193–94
Monet, Claude, 205
Monroe, Marilyn, 106, 142
Moore, Henry, 112
morality, 209
Morgan, J. P., 111, 168
Morrison, Toni, 27, 35, 47, 52, 87, 192, 235
Morse, Samuel F. B., 158
Moser, Mary, 38–39
Motherwell, Robert, 205
Mozart, Anna Maria, 50–51, 58–59
Mozart, Constanze, 240
Mozart, Franz Xaver, 16, 17
Mozart, Leopold, 50–51, 53, 54, 55–56, 58–59
Mozart, Nannerl, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55–56, 73, 161–62, 217
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 4, 8, 49–51, 124, 161–68; childlike imagination, 73, 74–75; concentration, 240, 244; cross-border thinking, 161–68, 163; education, 95; genius gene, 2; heredity, 13; obsession, 216, 217; oppositional thinking, 176, 176–77; prodigy, 49–51, 53, 54, 55–56, 58–59
Mozart Effect, 60–61
Mozart’s Sister (movie), 55
Mrs. Dalloway (Woolf), 118–19
“multiple intelligences,” 27
music and geniuses, 161–63
Musk, Elon, 17, 204, 205; concentration, 243, 244; cross-border thinking, 154; lust for learning, 91–92, 95; obsession, 210; oppositional thinking, 175, 184–85, 187; passion, 110, 111; rebelliousness, 141, 148; work ethic, 97
Musk, Kimbal, 91–92
Mussolini, Benito, 36
Nabokov, Vladimir, 12, 159, 247, 248
Nadal, Rafael, 1
Napoleon Bonaparte, 36, 191
Nash, John, 115–16
“natural selection,” 166
“nature versus nurture,” 14–22
neoteny, 75–76
neurotransmitters, 228–30
Neverland Ranch, 71–72
Newton, Isaac, 106–8, 128, 130, 242; concentration, 241; curiosity, 85; destructive tendencies, 214–15; luck, 192, 205; oppositional thinking, 173, 181–83; passion and obsession, 106–8; relaxation, 225
Nichols, Catherine, 31, 46
Nobel, Alfred, 209–10
Nocera, Joe, 211
Oates, Joyce Carol, 35
Obama, Barack, 144, 170
obscenity, 73–74
obsession, 106, 209–24
obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), 120, 122, 131
Off the Charts (Hulbert), 61
O’Keeffe, Georgia, 205
Olivier, Fernande, 218
Olmstead, Marla, 56
Ono, Yoko, 57
On Women (Schopenhauer), 37
Operation Varsity Blues, 29, 151
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 71
“opportunity,” 191–92
oppositional thinking, 173–90
optimism, 132–33
originality, 6, 55, 56–57, 65, 127, 224
oxymoron, 184, 186, 189, 190
Page, Larry, 205
pain, 115
palindromes, 175–77
paradox, 181, 182, 186
paradoxon, 181
Paravicini, Derek, 127–28
parental control, 151–52
Parr, Katherine, 78
passion, 9, 28, 63, 79, 82–83, 90, 93–94, 99–112, 213
Pasteur, Louis, 141, 198, 204
Pauling, Linus, 194, 196–97
Pavlova, Anna, 17
Peak (Ericsson), 18–19
Peek, Kim, 127
Pelley, Scott, 49
penicillin, 198–200
Peripatetics, 232
Peruggia, Vincenzo, 193
Phelps, Michael, 1, 7, 13–14
Phi Beta Kappa, 24–25, 26
“philosopher’s stone,” 107
photographic memory, 243–44
Picasso, José Ruiz, 59–60, 68–69
Picasso, Pablo, 19–21, 193, 218–22, 251; childlike imagination, 68–69; concentration, 238, 239, 243; cross-border thinking, 163–65; education, 95; gender bias, 36; heredity, 15–16; Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 123, 164, 165; longevity, 132; Minotaur Leaning over a Sleeping Girl, 220, 221; mood disorder, 115, 123; obsession, 216, 218–22; prodigy, 51, 59–60; The Weeping Woman, 220, 220; women, 218–22
Piscopia, Elena, 38
Planck, Max, 161
Plath, Sylvia, 45, 58, 115
Plato, 11–12, 99, 114, 204
“play,” 70
Player, Gary, 192
Plutarch, 87
Poe, Edgar Allan, 114
Polidori, John, 63
Pollock, Jackson, 52, 205
Polsky, Gabe, 100
polymaths, 155, 158–59
Post-it Note, 159
Pound, Ezra, 205
“Power” (song), 68
practice, 17–22
precox (precociousness), 52
preparation and luck, 191–207
Princeton University, 24, 29, 32, 39, 99, 205
prodigies, 49–62; definitions of, 51–52
“prodigy bubble,” 59, 61–62
productivity, 216
“protester,” 139
Proust, Marcel, 248
Pryor, Richard, 73–74
public library, 157
Raff, Joachim, 243
Rain Man (movie), 127
Ramanujan, Srinivasa, 128
“Renaissance man,” 42, 154
Raphael, 3, 191
reading, 86–87, 89–94, 97
rebelliousness, 135–52
Redmayne, Eddie, 1
relaxation, 9, 225–36
REM sleep, 226–27, 229
“reverse chronology,” 180
“reverse perspective,” 180
Reynolds, Jock, 218
Rhodes, Cecil, 210
Rhodes Scholarship, 210
Richards, Keith, 228
Richmann, Georg Wilhelm, 89
Ripley, Amanda, 137
risk taking, 27, 29, 83, 143–46, 152, 201–4
Rivera, Diego, 205
Robson, David, 169
Rock, Chris, 73–74, 186
Rodin, Auguste, 27
Roebling, Emily, 45
Rogers, Will, 187
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), 99, 183–84
Röntgen, Wilhelm, 198
Room of One’s Own, A (Woolf), 34, 35–36
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 87, 92
Roque, Jacqueline, 219
Ross, Lillian, 217
Rothko, Mark, 205
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 35
Rowling, J. K., 28, 35, 67–68, 115, 234; academic record and test scores, 26, 28; childlike imagination, 67–68, 69; failure, 149; jokes, 188
Rushdie, Salman, 143
Ruth, George Herman “Babe,” 108–9
Sabartés, Jaime, 239
Sacks, Oliver, 128
Sahl, Mort, 73–74
St. John the Baptist (Da Vinci), 81, 82
Salk, Jonas, 210, 222
Sand, George, 35
Sandberg, Sheryl, 32
sarcasm, 185–88
SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), 23–30
Satanic Verses, The (Rushdie), 143
Saunders, Michael, 39–40
savants, 127–28
Schiele, Egon, 218
Schoenberg, Arnold, 176, 204
school dropouts, 95–96
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 5, 36–37, 105
Schubert, Franz, 176, 204
Schulte, Brigid, 47
Schulz, Charles, 237, 244
Schumann, Clara, 33, 40
Schumer, Amy, 73–74
Schumpeter, Joseph, 211
“scientist,” 88
Scott, Walter, 66
Secretariat (horse), 14–15
Sedlacek, William, 28–29
Semmelweis, Ignaz, 79
Sexton, Anne, 123
Shakespeare, William, 3, 11–12, 52, 204, 224; education, 95; heredity, 192; imagination, 188; IQ, 23; luck, 192–93; oppositional thinking, 173, 183–84, 186; passion, 99; productivity, 216
Shelley, Mary Godwin, 4, 35, 63–67, 69
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 63, 65, 66
Shockley, William, 26, 28
Shostakovich, Dmitri, 13
Silicon Valley, 204, 206
Silverman, Sarah, 73–74
Silverstein, Shel, 100–101, 112, 247
Simonton, Dean Keith, 33–34, 48
Sinatra, Frank, 13
sleep, 9, 65–66, 226–30, 235
Small Fry (Brennan-Jobs), 212
Smartest Kids in the World, The (Ripley), 137
Socrates, 136, 204
Solomon, Maynard, 125
SpaceX, 91, 92, 93, 141, 175
special relativity, 70, 71, 93, 182
Spencer, Archibald, 88–89
Spencer, Percy, 198
Spengler, Joseph, 162
Spinoza, Baruch, 94
Sprague, Frank, 111
standardized tests, 23–24, 25–27
Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales, 26
Stanford Online, 97
Stanford University, 95, 99, 205
Staw, Barry, 143
Stein, Gertrude, 69, 205
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), 33, 170
Stern, Daniel, 35
Stickgold, Robert, 226
Stone, Douglas, 60
Straus, Joseph, 130–31
Stravinsky, Igor, 115, 176, 205, 227–28, 248
Strobel, Scott, 197
sublimation, 81–82
Summers, Lawrence, 37
Sun Also Rises, The (Hemingway), 150
“sunk cost syndrome,” 168–69
Super Soaker, 159
Swift, Jonathan, 137
swimming flippers, 156
“talent,” 5
Taoism, 188
Tassi, Agostino, 43
Taymor, Julie, 227
Teller, Edward, 161
Terman, Lewis, 22, 26
Tesla Motors, 184–85
Tesla, Nikola, 5, 12, 89–91, 90, 111, 141, 169, 214, 233–34, 252; adversity, 148; curiosity, 85, 89–91; mood disorder, 115; relaxation, 233–34
Tesla coil, 90, 91, 233–34
Tetlock, Philip, 169–70
Tharp, Twyla, 247, 248
Thiel, Peter, 205
“Think Different,” 135–36
Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman), 18, 169–70
“thinking opposite,” 173–90
Thomas, Dylan, 58
Thoreau, Henry David, 232
Thorne, Kip, 130, 246
Titanic, 193
Tolstaya, Sophia, 40–41
Tolstoy, Leo, 40–41, 247
Topsy (elephant), 214
“Tortoise and the Hare, The” (fable), 80–86
Toscanini, Arturo, 243
transmutation, 166
Trilling, Lionel, 218
troublemakers, 135–52
Trump, Donald, 1, 78, 139, 144
Tubman, Harriet, 7, 144–45
Turing, Alan, 1, 128
Twain, Mark, 94–95, 183, 187, 191, 232
“unconscious bias,” 46
Updike, John, 247, 249
Urban VIII, Pope, 137–38
Van Gogh, Vincent, 12, 17, 52, 116–18, 205; cross-border thinking, 158; dreams, 227; mental instability, 113, 116–18, 123; mortality, 131–32; passion, 99–100; rebelliousness, 136, 150–51
Vasari, Giorgio, 12, 83, 85, 244
Velcro, 159
Verdi, Giuseppe, 52
Verlat, Karel, 150–51
Virgil, 180
Virgin and Child (da Vinci), 177, 178,
179, 180
Vogel, Jack, 187
Von Stade, Francis Skiddy, 39
Wagner, Richard, 180, 217, 227
Walker, Matthew, 226–27
Waller, John, 136, 199
Walt Disney Company, 60–61
Walter, Marie-Thérèse, 218, 219–20, 221–22
Warhol, Andy, 106, 130, 141–43, 145, 146, 165, 205, 247
war of the currents, 141, 214, 233–34
Watson, James, 28, 64, 174, 194–97, 204
Weeping Woman, The (Picasso), 220, 220
Weiwei, Ai, 211
West, Kanye, 1, 7, 68, 75, 96, 115
Westinghouse, George, 111
“What Straight-A Students Get Wrong” (Grant), 25
“Why Individuals Reject Creativity” (Staw), 143
Why We Sleep (Walker), 226–27
Wilde, Oscar, 187–88
Wilkins, Maurice, 174, 194–97
William III of England, 107–8
Williams, Robin, 73–74, 74, 114, 128–30, 131, 217
Wiltshire, Stephen, 127–28
Winehouse, Amy, 123
Winfrey, Oprah, 86–87, 95, 97, 99, 148, 204, 210
Winklevoss, Tyler and Cameron, 202–3
Winters, Jonathan, 129
Wolfe, Thomas, 247
Wonder, Stevie, 13
Wood, Grant, 225
Woolf, Leonard, 118
Woolf, Virginia, 16, 27, 32, 34–36, 204; education, 95; gender bias, 34–36, 44–45; manic depression, 115, 118–20, 123; A Room of One’s Own, 34, 35–36
work ethic, 14–22
Wozniak, Steve, 160
writer’s block, 232
Wyeth, N. C., 187, 248
Yale University, 8, 24–25, 29, 32, 39; Exploring the Nature of Genius course, 8, 11, 32, 130, 242, 253; Introduction to Classical Music course, 97; Listening to Music course, 231–32
“Yesterday” (song), 228
Zucked (McNamee), 223
Zuckerberg, Mark, 26, 95, 133, 201–4, 210, 222–24
Zyman, Samuel, 49