Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People

by Michele Root-Bernstein and Robert Root-Bernstein

Book Overview

Sparks of Genius is a fascinating study of creativie thinking--mankind's greatest attribute (Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape).

Creativity isn't born, it's cultivated--and this innovative guide distills the work of extraordinary artists and thinkers to show you how. All the imagination needs to be fruitful is exercise. Robert and Mich?le Root-Bernstein identify the thinking tools employed by history's greatest creative...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618127453
• ISBN13: 9780618127450
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein's Sparks of Genius

The review by Kirkus Associates is excellent, and many of the other reviews are very good. The 13 thinking tools of the world's most creative people, according to the authors, are abstracting, analogizing, body thinking (body images), dimensional thinking, empathizing (feeling empathy with objects, processes, others), forming patterns, imaging (thinking of things by using mental images of them, whether realistic or "distorted"), modeling, observing, playing, recognizing patterns, synthesizing (combining, etc.), transforming. The study of genius as an "extreme" of knowledge discovery is long past its due in education from elementary through university, and has many clues for improving education. Geniuses not only cross fields from science through art, but tend to be interdisciplinary, appear to be well grounded both in basics and intuition/thinking/mental processes, and use imagery (by the way, using imagery is taught by a number of cognitive psychologists and psychoanalysts for mental health as well). Robert Bernstein's physiology background helps him unlock some of the physiological processes of genius, and Michele's historical background helps trace back the characteristics of pre-modern geniuses. There is probably much more to the story, but this book is an excellent start.

"Everything in your life ends up in your act." C.Steinmetz

The authors cite the above quote as synthesizing the lessons of this remarkable book. In so doing, they make a compelling case for a reversal of the education and thinking processes of ever more separating the arts and sciences, the senses, and subdividing specialities. As the authors relate in a number of ways, a central problem of education today is that the students often can pass the tests but not apply what they learned to everyday life. This is a core problem also cited by fellow MacArthur scholar Howard Gardner in The Unschooled Mind. They see the compartmentalization of knowledge and learning as the cause.The path taken to get to that conclusion is a most unique and pleasant one to follow. They investigated the writings of creative geniuses and the reports of contemporaries about them, and found that these people employed many more kinds of thought processes than the average person uses. And each thought process added something to the whole. In so doing, they correct many descriptions about these same people in popular (and even scholarly) writings. For example, almost everyone knows that Einstein had trouble with math as a young person. Most people believe that he suddenly blossomed as a mathematician later. But that's not the case. He developed his concepts through mind and body experiments that had nothing to do with math. When it came time to create the proofs for his work, he needed help from accomplished mathematicians. This is another key point: the creative insight that these people have is never as it is presented to the world. That communicated version is simply one that is easier to understand, but has little to do with the way the innovator perceives the concept. As the authors put it, "Creative thinking in all fields occurs proverbally, before logic or linguistics comes into play, manifesting itself through emotions, intuitions, images and bodily feelings. The resulting ideas can be translated into one or more formal systems of communication . . . only after they are sufficiently developed in their prelogical forms."To make the case for that perspective, the authors take creative thinking in both arts and sciences and look at the process as one to find commonalities. In so doing, they observe 13 frequently used methods by creative geniuses: observing; imaging; abstracting; recognizing patterns; analogizing; body thinking; empathizing; dimensional thinking; modeling; playing; transforming; and synthesizing.With many books, you can read a list like that and skip the book. That would be a mistake here. Each of these 13 chapters was a revelation to me with how much can be done in each area. Drawing from a number of fields and individuals, the authors describe advanced uses of these techniques in ways beyond what I could have imagined. Having heard the concept for the first time in a particular application, I could usually begin to apply it to my own issues. In other w

Sparking genius

For anyone interesting in understand or developing his own mind and the creative process, this is a superb book marred only by the mediocre printing of what are appropriately selected illustrations. That, however, is a fault of the publisher, not the authors. Not only is the easy style and sheer erudition of the authors impressive but even more impressive is the creative manner is which creativity is illustrated and discussed. A truly superb book. Highly recommended

A must-read book for all parents and educators!

I have checked this book out of the library so many times that it was time to own it. Each chapter on thinking skills deserves a slow, relaxed read. The authors are to be commended for such easy to read text and depth of topic. The understanding of early development of these skills and the suggestions for application of the lessons are teriffic. This book is a personal library must-have.

Brilliant; Outstanding; Better than 5-star book

It is such a pleasure to write a review of a book of this caliber. I don't have to balance what is good with what is not so good, because "Sparks of Genius" is an excellent, superb book, from start to finish. I would have only one small addition to one of the chapters, which I will mention below. I think that "Sparks of Genius" is the first book I have ever read on the subject of how to develop genius, but I cannot imagine a better complilation of what it takes to foster and inspire genius and creativity in people. The main reason for this is that the authors base their material on how creative people in the arts, sciences, etc., acquire and develop their skills, and every chapter except the last one (appropriately) are full of firsthand examples from people of genius and creativity in (almost!) all walks of life. Yet the authors themselves exhibit their own kind of genius in organizing the material, writing chapter after chapter with genuine vision and clarity, and most importantly, after intellectually explaining "sparks" such as observing, imaging, analyzing, and empathizing, give specific, generally uncomplicated, exercises on how to develop these skills. Throughout the book the authors demonstrate that people in very diverse walks of life exhibit the same "sparks of genius" in their work, which I find quite inspiring in itself. In this way they themselves exemplify the value of "synthesis," perhaps the key that links all the methods they depict. The book is a call to "rethink thinking," to teach cross-discipline learning, and I feel that the methods discussed in the book, and then discussed specifically in the context of education in the final chapter, would be invaluable as educational tools. I believe that if children's education could be fostered along the lines of these tools of creative genius, if children could be taught to use their own internal resources instead of relying on the obvious external garbage such as TV and video games, the improvement to society would be tremendous. My favorite chapter in the book is called "Empathizing," where the authors discuss what artists and scientists do to go inside of whomever or whatever they are portraying (actors), drawing (artists), treating (physicians), as well as other real-life examples. My only small addition to "Sparks of Genius" would be in the penultimate chapter, called "Synthesizing," some mention of the "gestalt" in experiencing the whole in music, art, etc. I liked this term from personal experience and from books on gestalt therapy that came out some time ago, and it's a very intuitive concept that fits in well with the chapter's discussion. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!