Einstein'S Genius Secrets: Unleash Your Creativity With Combinatorial Play | Mental Models For Better Living

Speaker: 00:00:00

Hello, Listeners, it's March 07, 2025, and welcome to another episode of The Science of Self.

Speaker: 00:00:13

As always, we're here to help you improve your life from the inside out.

Speaker: 00:00:17

Today, we have a fantastic episode for you, featuring insights from some of history's greatest minds on innovation, creativity, and intelligence.

Speaker: 00:00:26

Our host, Russell, will guide us through these lessons, drawing from Peter Hollins's latest book, "Genius Thinking: Lessons From History’s Greatest Minds on Innovation, Creativity, and Intelligence."

Speaker: 00:00:39

In this episode, we'll explore the following topics from Chapter 2 of the book:

Speaker: 00:00:43

7 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:45,520 1.

Speaker: 00:00:45

Einstein and Combinatorial Play: Discover how Albert Einstein's creative genius stemmed from his ability to combine seemingly unrelated ideas, fostering a unique approach to problem-solving that transcended conventional boundaries.

Speaker: 00:01:00

2.

Speaker: 00:01:01

The Power of the Possible: Learn how embracing the impossible can open up new paths for innovation and progress, as demonstrated by Einstein's groundbreaking theories in physics.

Speaker: 00:01:14

3.

Speaker: 00:01:15

The Strength of Non-conventionality: Investigate the benefits of challenging conventional wisdom and exploring uncharted territory, as exemplified by the trailblazing thinkers featured in this book.

Speaker: 00:01:28

To dive deeper into these lessons and many more, be sure to check out Peter Hollins's "Genius Thinking" on Amazon, both in print and audio formats.

Speaker: 00:01:39

You can also find the audiobook on iTunes and Audible.

Speaker: 00:01:42

For more insights and resources from Peter Hollins, visit his website at [PeterHollins](http://bitly-peterhollins.com).

Speaker: 00:01:53

Albert Einstein is the world-renowned German physicist and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect.

Speaker: 00:02:04

Now considered one of the most influential scientific theorists in history, Einstein was known for being a deeply inquisitive and curious person.

Speaker: 00:02:14

Reportedly Einstein didn’t enjoy school as a child, but early tutoring experiences sparked his interest in the topic of light.

Speaker: 00:02:24

When Einstein excused himself from military service as a young man and dropped out of school (he preferred independent study), his parents were worried about his future.

Speaker: 00:02:35

Nevertheless, he was admitted to a prestigious Zurich university because of his excellent performance on the maths and physics entrance exams.

Speaker: 00:02:45

After graduating he worked as a patent clerk, where he privately pursued some of his own ideas.

Speaker: 00:02:52

In 1905 he published four breakthrough papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion and relativity.

Speaker: 00:03:01

Einstein married and had children, but his marriage was not a happy one, and he divorced and remarried in 1919.

Speaker: 00:03:09

At the time, Einstein was less known for his theory of relativity than he is today, and perhaps could not have predicted the full direction his discoveries would take physics in the future (for example, his work foreshadowing the development of the atomic bomb).

Einstein: 00:03:26

not a one-trick pony

Einstein: 00:03:30

27 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:41,240 Surprisingly (or perhaps not), the most notable scientist of the 20th century was also known for taking time out of his research to play the violin.

Einstein: 00:03:41

In so doing, Einstein was engaging in a combination of the “hard” and the “soft” or, more accurately, he was exercising skills that required very different mindsets.

Einstein: 00:03:52

Reportedly, he was even very good at the instrument, as he was with the piano.

Einstein: 00:03:58

But while sawing away on the violin during his breaks, Einstein actually arrived at some breakthroughs in his research and philosophical questionings.

Einstein: 00:04:08

Allegedly one of these musical sessions was the spark for his most famous equation: E=mc2.

Einstein: 00:04:16

Knowing what we do about how true genius sees the world, this shouldn’t surprise us.

Einstein: 00:04:22

Einstein came up with the term combinatory play to describe the intangible process in which his favorite pastime led to ideas that revolutionized the whole of scientific thought.

Einstein: 00:04:34

He explained his reasoning as best he could in 1945 in a letter to French mathematician Jacques S. Hadamard:

Einstein: 00:04:42

“My Dear Colleague:

Einstein: 00:04:46

In the following, I am trying to answer in brief your questions as well as I am able.

Einstein: 00:04:52

I am not satisfied myself with those answers and I am willing to answer more questions if you believe this could be of any advantage for the very interesting and difficult work you have undertaken.

Einstein: 00:05:03

(A) The words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought.

Einstein: 00:05:14

The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be “voluntarily” reproduced and combined.

Einstein: 00:05:25

There is, of course, a certain connection between those elements and relevant logical concepts.

Einstein: 00:05:31

It is also clear that the desire to arrive finally at logically connected concepts is the emotional basis of this rather vague play with the above-mentioned elements.

Einstein: 00:05:42

But taken from a psychological viewpoint, this combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought—before there is any connection with logical construction in words or other kinds of signs which can be communicated to others.

Einstein: 00:05:58

(B) The above-mentioned elements are, in my case, of visual and some of muscular type.

Einstein: 00:06:06

Conventional words or other signs have to be sought for laboriously only in a secondary stage, when the mentioned associative play is sufficiently established and can be reproduced at will.

Einstein: 00:06:18

(C) According to what has been said, the play with the mentioned elements is aimed to be analogous to certain logical connections one is searching for.

Einstein: 00:06:30

(D) Visual and motor.

Einstein: 00:06:36

In a stage when words intervene at all, they are, in my case, purely auditive, but they interfere only in a secondary stage, as already mentioned.

Einstein: 00:06:45

(E) It seems to me that what you call full consciousness is a limit case which can never be fully accomplished.

Einstein: 00:06:56

This seems to be connected with the fact called the narrowness of consciousness (Enge des Bewusstseins).”

Einstein: 00:07:05

Notice, firstly, that Einstein has no problem engaging in metacognition, or thinking about his own thinking and asking questions about his own question-asking.

Einstein: 00:07:16

Einstein seemed to believe that indulging in his creative tendencies was helpful for his logical and rational pursuits.

Einstein: 00:07:24

That might have been the case, and it also might have been the case that to engage in a distraction was helpful for taking on different perspectives and viewing problems from different angles.

Einstein: 00:07:34

Perhaps it’s related to the so-called Medici effect, in which the melding of different disciplines will inevitably lead to new discoveries, and the whole always seems to be greater than the sum of the parts.

Einstein: 00:07:41

Indeed, combinatory play is not simply the notion that play takes your mind to a different world to regroup.

Einstein: 00:07:44

It recognizes, as Einstein did, that taking pieces of knowledge and insight from different disciplines and combining them in new contexts is how most creativity truly happens.

Einstein: 00:07:50

So as mentioned, somehow Einstein saw something in playing the violin that helped him think about physics in an entirely new way.

Einstein: 00:07:53

The lesson here is to engage in your own pursuits and not feel constrained by having to stay in similar or adjacent disciplines, thinking that only they will aid you.

Einstein: 00:07:56

Remember that human beings divide the world into subjects and categories—reality is all blended together into one complex whole, so why not look at it that way?

Einstein: 00:08:01

There are always parallels between different disciplines, so find them.

Einstein: 00:08:04

More of the same probably will not help; a dash of something different just might.

Try this: 00:08:06

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman advised people to keep a list or notebook of their “twelve favorite problems.” They can be about anything, simple or complex.

Try this: 00:08:12

The fun happens, however, when you start to look for connections.

Try this: 00:08:13

Construct your list of twelve items and then get curious about any overlap.

Try this: 00:08:15

For example, what can your interest in medieval farming methods tell you about present-day fashion trends in Vienna?

Try this: 00:08:20

If you’ve been asking big questions about life, the universe and everything, why not give the usual sources a break and consult some unexpected ones, instead?

Try this: 00:08:25

For example, instead of reading the same old philosophers, look to the world of art, to linguistics, to neuroscience, to theology, or to something as simple as pottery or how to graft apple trees—there are eureka moments lying in wait everywhere!

Try this: 00:08:34

The key here is not just to add things together, but to genuinely combine them—in the way that red and yellow make a whole new color, green.

Try this: 00:08:39

Not only will this enhance your own intellectual development and help you find answers to burning questions, but it will go some way toward helping you construct a coherent and intelligent meta-model of the world.

Try this: 00:08:45

The power of the possible

Try this: 00:08:48

71 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:55,440 Einstein became well-known for another thinking technique, and it is one that we use most days in everyday life.

Try this: 00:08:55

“What if humans were capable of flying?”

Try this: 00:08:59

“What if the world’s landmasses never broke up into separate continents and instead remained as Pangaea to this day?”

Try this: 00:09:05

“What if I was the kind of person who could solve this problem?

Try this: 00:09:09

How would I be and what would I be thinking?”

Try this: 00:09:10

These are hypothetical “what if” questions that tickle your mind into thinking from other perspectives and challenge you to question your premises.

Try this: 00:09:18

Imagining hypotheticals goes beyond simple thinking skills that require only memorization, description of an observable event or situation, or even analysis of facts and concrete events.

Try this: 00:09:32

Because hypotheticals pose questions about what isn’t, what hasn’t happened, or what isn’t likely to ever happen, they stretch the imagination in new ways and sharpen creative thinking and practical intelligence.

Try this: 00:09:46

They allow a person to try on different perspectives as though they were lenses, and suddenly see what was invisible to them before.

Try this: 00:09:55

For instance, you’ve likely never considered the implications of human flight because it’s impossible, so there is a world of thoughts that have remained unexplored.

Try this: 00:10:08

How would traffic lights work, what kind of licensing process would be required, would we still have cars and airplanes, and how would safety work?

Try this: 00:10:18

Now, how would those rules and laws apply to normal traffic situations in the present day?

Try this: 00:10:24

Think through the realities of how everything would fit together—it’s no small feat!

Try this: 00:10:31

Einstein in particular was known to explore hypothetical situations taken to the extreme.

Try this: 00:10:37

He called them Gedankenexperiments, which is German for “thought experiments.”

Try this: 00:10:44

87 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:51,880 A thought experiment, in a more general context, is essentially playing out a “what if” scenario to its end.

Try this: 00:10:51

It’s acting as if a theory or hypothesis were true, diving deep into the ramifications and seeing what happens to your “what if” under intense scrutiny.

Try this: 00:11:03

A thought experiment allows you to analyze interesting premises you could never manifest in reality and make new leaps of logic and discovery because you can consider conditions that current knowledge doesn’t yet reach.

Try this: 00:11:17

Suppose the problem situation is needing to exit a room.

Try this: 00:11:23

The conventional ways to do so are to walk out the door or jump out the window.

Try this: 00:11:26

But what if the door is blocked by a raging fire and the room is on the tenth floor of the building?

Try this: 00:11:32

These conditions have now rendered your conventional solutions fatal.

Try this: 00:11:38

You can only get out of the room either by finding a way to kill that fire or by surviving a fall of several hundred feet.

Try this: 00:11:44

Something in this scenario needs to drastically change its usage or definition, or it will break entirely.

Try this: 00:11:54

This is the essence of the thought experiment.

Try this: 00:11:56

Suppose this happens.

Try this: 00:12:00

What happens next?

Try this: 00:12:01

And then?

Try this: 00:12:03

And then?

Try this: 00:12:04

Thought experiments were one of Einstein’s superpowers.

Try this: 00:12:09

He could imagine a scenario, play it out mentally with shocking accuracy and detail, and then extract the subtle conclusions that lay within.

Try this: 00:12:20

One of Einstein’s most famous Gedankenexperiments begins with a simple premise: what would happen if you chased and then eventually caught up to and rode a beam of light through space?

Try this: 00:12:33

In theory, once you caught up to the beam of light, it would appear to be frozen next to you because you are moving at the same speed.

Try this: 00:12:40

Just like if you are walking at the same pace as a car driving next to you, there is no acceleration (the relative velocities are the same), so the car would seem to be stuck to your side.

Try this: 00:12:52

The only problem was that this was an impossible proposition at the turn of the century.

Try this: 00:12:58

If you catch up to the light and the light appears to be frozen beside you, then it is inherently impossible that it is light, because of the difference in speeds.

Try this: 00:13:09

It ceases to be light at that moment.

Try this: 00:13:11

This means one of the rules of physics was broken or disproved with this elementary thought.

Try this: 00:13:18

Therefore, one of the assumptions that underlay physics at the time had to change, and Einstein realized that the belief in time as a constant had to shift.

Try this: 00:13:29

This discovery directly laid the path for the theory of relativity.

Try this: 00:13:34

The closer you get to the speed of light, the more time becomes different for you—relative to an outside observer.

Try this: 00:13:42

This thought experiment allowed Einstein to challenge what were thought to be set-in-stone rules set forth by Isaac Newton’s three laws of energy and matter.

Try this: 00:13:54

This thought experiment was instrumental in realizing that people should question old models and fundamental “rules” instead of trying to conform their theories to them.

Try this: 00:14:03

To do the same, you can get far by simply inverting all the things you usually consider as fixed and nonnegotiable.

Try this: 00:14:14

Turn ordinary statements into questions.

Try this: 00:14:17

For example, everyone knows that roughly half of humans are male and half female.

Try this: 00:14:23

But what if they weren’t?

Try this: 00:14:25

What if there were only 10 percent of either?

Try this: 00:14:27

What would society look like if human beings were neither, or both at the same time?

Try this: 00:14:34

Or, what if a human being could change randomly from one to the other during the course of their lives?

Try this: 00:14:41

In fact, Ursula K. Le Guin explored this very question in her sci-fi novel The Left Hand of Darkness.

Try this: 00:14:50

Le Guin had a question: When we remove gender, what’s left?

Try this: 00:14:54

Fans and critics have gotten embroiled in complicated theoretical tangles about what the book means, but what’s important is that the question, the what if, has opened all these new avenues of inquiry.

Try this: 00:15:12

Le Guin wasn’t trying to solve a problem or make a claim about how she thought things should be.

Try this: 00:15:17

She was simply curious.

Try this: 00:15:19

And her curiosity about everything that wasn’t true ironically allowed her and many others to engage more fully with what is true.

Try this: 00:15:29

The strength of non-conventionality

Try this: 00:15:34

130 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:42,040 Let’s return now to the genius traits we mentioned in the previous chapter, and see how Einstein measures against them.

Try this: 00:15:42

As we saw above, many of Einstein’s great Eureka moments came from his being a polymath, or “cross-pollinating” ideas from one area to another (in this case music and physics).

Try this: 00:15:54

It’s probably quite obvious that another of Einstein’s strengths was intellectual curiosity, lust for learning and insatiable desire to keep asking questions.

Try this: 00:16:06

We can see so much of the lighthearted, uninhibited child aspect of genius in Einstein, who literally labeled a technique he used as “play.”

Try this: 00:16:18

Einstein never set out to win any prizes, or earn accolades as the best physicist of his generation.

Try this: 00:16:26

That was never his goal.

Try this: 00:16:28

Rather, he simply wanted to understand.

Try this: 00:16:31

His passion for seeing into the deeper nature of things led him to areas of knowledge that were previously uncharted.

Try this: 00:16:39

We can see how this attitude put him at odds with his more conventional, pedagogical early school life, and we can imagine that the young Einstein would not have been much inspired by boring lessons about things that were already well known and established.

Try this: 00:16:55

We cannot imagine Einstein’s great achievements happening without his enormous sense of curiosity spurring him on.

Try this: 00:17:04

He was not motivated by pride or fame, either, since he was known to regularly alienate and offend other scientists and peers and was reportedly quite difficult to work with.

Try this: 00:17:16

Einstein was nothing if not a curious soul, and it’s this attitude of inquiry that seems to have informed his entire life.

Try this: 00:17:25

We can see in Einstein’s case that curiosity so often comes with non-conventionality.

Try this: 00:17:32

He was a “draft dodger” and concocted a medical excuse so as not to complete military service, and was not averse to skipping classes or generally failing to follow school rules.

Try this: 00:17:46

He seemed to have little regard for pre-established hierarchies and preferred to trust his own estimations of what was important and worth doing.

Try this: 00:17:54

And, this trait, too, is at the center of his success.

Try this: 00:17:59

Can you imagine any scientist being credited with completely paradigm-shifting work in the field without breaking the rules of the day?

Try this: 00:18:09

We know and love Einstein today as a fiercely smart, independent thinker who greatly advanced the human scientific endeavor.

Try this: 00:18:18

But we need to remember that Einstein was just a man, who at one time saw his own vision only dimly, and worked on his pursuits with no guarantee of where they would lead.

Try this: 00:18:30

The one thing that can motivate a person through such a path?

Try this: 00:18:35

Endless curiosity.

Try this: 00:18:37

We can imagine that Einstein would have been fulfilled even if he had never won any awards and died completely unknown.

Try this: 00:18:44

Takeaways

Try this: 00:18:48

• Einstein’s genius traits included curiosity, having broad areas of interest (i.e.

Try this: 00:18:56

being a polymath), and a refusal to bow to convention.

Try this: 00:18:59

• Einstein is known today as one of the 20th century’s most influential scientific thinkers, and was considered by many to be a genius in both mathematics and physics.

Try this: 00:19:11

He won the Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, but he is best known today for his groundbreaking theory on relativity and his famous E=mc2 equation.

Try this: 00:19:24

• Einstein coined his own term for the kind of playful, freeform connections he’d make between different topics and ideas: combinatorial play.

Try this: 00:19:36

By putting two unrelated ideas together to create something new, Einstein often solved problems, came up with creative new ideas or opened new avenues of thoughts to pursue.

Try this: 00:19:48

• The game of “what if?” is another way to flex the curiosity muscle and bring freshness and novelty to conventional thinking.

Try this: 00:19:58

By running hypothetical situations and thought experiments in his mind, Einstein satisfied his thirst for learning and understanding, and accessed new insights that were beyond conventions at the time.

Try this: 00:20:12

• Einstein was a polymath and had a broad range of interests, rather than one narrow focus.

Try this: 00:20:19

He played violin and piano, and had some of his best new ideas during play.

Try this: 00:20:26

This kind of broadmindedness and diversity of interest promotes intellectual agility and wide-ranging, flexible perspectives.

Try this: 00:20:35

• Einstein was also non-conventional and worked independently, regardless of the established rules that surrounded him in early life.

Try this: 00:20:45

This allowed him to engage in truly independent ideas and contribute something entirely different to the field.

Try this: 00:20:52

• We can see in Einstein’s case that non-linearity of thought, insatiable curiosity and a wide range of interests were not just helpful to his success, but essential.

Try this: 00:21:06

We can follow suit by freely engaging in interdisciplinary play and “what if?” games in the areas that grab our intense interest.

Try this: 00:21:16

• Though conventions may occasionally be useful, the best territory to explore is that which is uncharted!

Try this: 00:21:25

• To be more like Einstein, we can think of ways to break down artificial limits and categories in our own thinking, and blend concepts and ideas together freely—can you think of a way to combine two of your interests to produce a third, completely new idea?

Title: 00:21:43

Unleash Your Inner Einstein: Boost Creativity, Innovation, and Intelligence Through Curiosity and Play

Title: 00:21:54

172 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:56,240 Host: Welcome back, listeners!

Title: 00:21:56

Today's episode has been an exploration of Albert Einstein's genius traits and how we can apply them to our own lives.

Title: 00:22:01

We've learned that curiosity, broad interests, independence, and non-linear thinking were essential to his success.

Title: 00:22:08

So, what can you do to tap into your inner Einstein?

Title: 00:22:12

Call to Action:

Title: 00:22:13

178 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:14,480 1.

Title: 00:22:14

Engage in combinatorial play: Like Einstein, use connections between seemingly unrelated topics to spark creativity and new ideas.

Title: 00:22:23

Challenge yourself to combine two of your interests to generate a fresh perspective.

Title: 00:22:28

2.

Title: 00:22:29

Ask "what if?

Title: 00:22:30

": Pose hypothetical situations and run thought experiments to expand your thinking beyond conventional boundaries.

Title: 00:22:38

This can help you access innovative solutions and novel insights.

Title: 00:22:42

3.

Title: 00:22:43

Embrace your inner polymath: Develop a wide range of interests, and explore how different fields are interconnected.

Title: 00:22:52

This will foster intellectual agility and flexible perspectives.

Title: 00:22:56

4.

Title: 00:22:58

Break free from convention: Challenge the established rules and norms that surround you, just as Einstein did.

Title: 00:23:06

By doing so, you'll be able to engage in truly independent thinking and contribute something unique to your field.

Title: 00:23:16

5.

Title: 00:23:17

Explore uncharted territory: Pursue the unknown and embrace non-linear thinking.

Title: 00:23:23

This will help you discover new ideas, insights, and possibilities that may have been overlooked by others.

Title: 00:23:29

6.

Title: 00:23:32

Share your findings: Just as Einstein did with his groundbreaking theories on relativity and the photoelectric effect, share your innovative ideas with the world.

Title: 00:23:41

Your unique perspective could inspire others and contribute to a greater understanding of the topics you're passionate about.

Title: 00:23:48

Remember, the best territory to explore is that which is uncharted!

Title: 00:23:56

So, go forth and unleash your inner Einstein, embracing curiosity, playfulness, and a hunger for knowledge.

Title: 00:24:04

The world is waiting for your unique contributions!

Title: 00:24:07

Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Science of Self.

Title: 00:24:12

We hope you've enjoyed the insights and guidance from Peter Hollins' book, "Genius Thinking: Lessons From History’s Greatest Minds on Innovation, Creativity, and Intelligence."

Title: 00:24:23

Be sure to check out Peter's website at [bitly PeterHollins](http://bitly PeterHollins) for more resources and information.

Title: 00:24:29

And don't forget to follow The Science of Self podcast for more episodes that will help you improve your life from the inside out.

Title: 00:24:37

Until next time, stay curious, my friends!