The Courage To Go Against The Grain

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,: 2023

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Today's episode is from Peter Holland's book think like a Genius. And we take a look at two from ancient history copernicus and Galileo. In today's world, most people admire non conventional thinkers and rule breakers. And we all understand that those mavericks and big thinkers who challenge assumptions today often end up making astonishing breakthroughs tomorrow. But this attitude is a relatively modern one, and for most of human history, innovators and those who question things faced a most formidable challenge the stubbornness of those around them. Today we have the benefit of hindsight and can easily look at those who used to believe the Earth was the center of the universe as foolish. But try to imagine what it was like for Galileo that famous intellectual black sheep who lived in a world where heliocentrism was so obvious only a heretic would argue against it. It would be the equivalent today of arguing that people could reverse their age or that it was possible for humans to photosynthesize what it takes to be different.

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venly bodies was completed in: 1543

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. At the time of his death in: 1543

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The Church had always held that God had created man at the center of the world, and to suggest otherwise was seen as sacrilege. Whilst a man like Darwin managed to push through this resistance, galileo lived in less progressive times and was publicly forced to recant his claims. Knowing what we do about intellectual honesty and freedom of inquiry, we can appreciate how severe a restriction this was to a man who only wanted to understand the truth. Galileo is now known for championing the Heliocentric view, but it was not his only achievement. He's also credited with the invention of the pendulum clock and the refracting telescope, for which he ground and polished his own lenses and experimented with magnification. Galileo used all the same principles of the scientific method we still rely on today, as well as a dash of Socratic questioning and the iterative process favored by inventors like Edison. He used observation and experiment, always looking to the data and what he observed, rather than starting with a fixed assumption and trying to make all observations fit that preconceived idea. Using his telescopes, Galileo was able to see mountains and craters on distant planets.

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He investigated the planetary cycles and phases of Venus and identified the moons around Jupiter, which are now called Galilean moons. He discovered that the Milky Way was in fact made of stars and not just a mist of light, as was previously assumed. It might tell us something interesting, however, that the work which we most associate with Galileo today was the work he was most villainized for in his own time. Galileo was eventually tried and convicted for heresy and was labeled an enemy of the Catholic Church. He was threatened with burning at the stake, eventually took back his claims and lived under house arrest for the rest of his life. It was only much later, with the work of Isaac Newton, that the Copernican theory was gradually allowed to take hold in non Catholic countries. And by the late 18th century, what had begun as wild conjecture was commonplace and universally accepted as true. Incidentally, the Catholic Church took a whopping 359 years to acknowledge that Galileo was in fact right.

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II issued a formal apology in: 1992

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What is seen as exciting, novel, and worthwhile to a genius may at the same time seem threatening, dangerous and pointless to a person who's more invested in the status quo. True geniuses throughout history, however, have always pushed on. We usually become aware of great scientists only after they've won awards and become celebrities. But if we'd seen them before, we might have mistaken them for crackpots, crazies, deviants, or delusional people who are wasting their time. Galileo could never have achieved what he did if he allowed the Church to put a complete end to his work. Luckily for science and for humanity as a whole, other great people were able to pick up Galileo's work where he left off and carry the torch of enlightenment a little further, protecting it from being snuffed out by those who were fearful of change. Again, we see that the most successful, resilient and profound work was that done by people who were motivated only by the lust for learning and the deep desire to understand. If Galileo had been driven purely by financial gain or the approval of his peers, he would have given up at the first criticism from the Church.

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In fact, he would never have had the courage to dream up a theory that contradicted it in the first place. We can see that the trait most associated with both Galileo and Copernicus is non conventionality and a willingness to go against the grain. Galileo made observations and came to certain conclusions, and his intellectual honesty didn't allow him to pretend he didn't see what he saw. His insatiable curiosity meant that he couldn't simply abandon a promising field of inquiry just because it was unpopular or rather illegal at the time. His intellectual honesty wouldn't allow him to falsify or distort his claims to make them more palatable, and he didn't mind making enemies if it meant he spoke the truth. Granted, Galileo eventually renounced his work under threat of death, but we can see this recanting as a mark against his society and not a sign of his personal weakness. What can we learn from these two great men and all the other scientists, both famous and unknown who worked tirelessly despite the lack of understanding and support from their society. Navigating Rejection human beings are social animals.

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We've all evolved in tribes and social groups that have left us with a deeply programmed belief that acceptance equals survival. If we're accepted by the group, we're happy and well. If we're rejected, we fail. So we try to follow the group and reject people who are outside our norms. It's this unspoken rule that keeps societies following conventions and customs and adapting only slowly to changes in ways of thinking, even if they're for the better. What this means for the independent thinker, innovator or inventor is that they may encounter rejection, alienation and criticism on their path. True, some scientists and great thinkers are celebrated, but this is often long after they've fought hard against the status quo and the resistance from doubters. We don't have to face the persecution on the level that Galileo did, but we may nevertheless feel afraid of trying something new and thinking out of the box, lest we rock the boat or invite criticism.

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How do we deal with this inevitable side effect of genius? Non conventional thinking. Modern day Japanese authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitaki Koga wrote a book called The Courage to Be Disliked. Inspired by their background in Western philosophy and edlian psychology, the two wanted to explore how we could be the people we wanted to be without being unduly influenced and limited by the thoughts and opinions of others. Though Kishimi and Koga wrote primarily from a psychological perspective, they provide powerful insights into how we can have more courage to pursue the paths we want to pursue and be the kinds of people we want to be, whether that means completely upending the prevailing model of reality or simply putting your foot down with a pushy family member. What do non conventional people possess that others don't? How do they differ in their thought processes from all those people who are worried about offending others, about fitting in, about being praised or accepted, and so on? If we're honest with ourselves, we can probably identify times where we allowed social pressure, expectation or pride to get the better of us.

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Genius is not always about the amazing things you can think about sometimes it's about having the strength of character to decide what you won't think about, be it the unfounded expectations of others or external pressures. Resist determinism. A key idea in Kishimi and Pumitake's book is learning to be empowered and to take control over your own fate. Geniuses are people who act. They never passively accept things set out for them by others, but rather express their full agency, taking matters into their own hands and trying things out without waiting for permission. Digging into this attitude a little, we can see that it comes from an absence of a belief in determinism. Think about some unpleasant fact of life. One person looks at it, shrugs and says, oh, well, that's the way it is.

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What are you going to do about it? And leaves it alone. The other person looks at it, becomes curious and starts to plan ways they can change it. They invent a solution. They design a tool to make the problem go away. They change the story or rally people around them to change the world somehow to make it better. The first person has succumbed to a deterministic and apathetic outlook, whereas the second understands that they always have the power to act, to build, to decide. So in the case of Galileo and Copernicus, it didn't really matter that their theories were not well accepted.

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They did not see the preexisting geocentric theories written in stone, unable to be altered, in other words, as a part of fate. Rather, they took charge and acted in the ways they knew to craft new ideas. This fundamental difference in mindset is what powers all non conventional thinking. Just because you did it one way yesterday, doesn't mean you have to do it the same way today. Just because you failed once doesn't mean you can't succeed later. Just because you don't like how things are, doesn't mean you can't change it. In a way, this is the same mindset that underlies the what if idea. The ability to look at reality and see it, but also see that it can be different, that it can change.

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So what's your attitude to change? If you're like the geniuses in our book, you'll be inspired, motivated or irresistibly driven by change. You'll look at the world and get excited about what could be. You see visions of things you could build or create or improve, and it excites you own your work. Another big idea explored in the book is that each of us is only responsible for our own lives and our own actions. In a way, nonconventionality comes with a hearty dose of independence. It's the ability to recognize that we are each individuals and it's okay to think as we think. The idea is that we become empowered and strengthened on our path when we put our head down and do the work we need to do without considering the work that others need to do.

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Their work is theirs, ours is ours. When you own your own work, you place your locus of control within yourself and judge your efforts against your own values and principles. If we are anchored in our own mission, our own dreams and our own strengths, then we don't need approval or recognition from others. We already have it from ourselves. We can't know what was in Galileo's mind as he was forced to renounce his findings, but we can assume that he wouldn't have persisted so long on a course he didn't believe in. With every fiber of his being true freedom, independence and non conventionality comes down then to the courage to pursue our path no matter what, regardless of anything that's gone before or of what people say or what it costs, we pursue it. In fact, it's hard to imagine how many prominent scientists could possess the stamina they do without some conviction that they were doing what they knew deep down was right. Have Faith In Yourself though the big thinkers we've looked at in this book have been scientists and mathematicians, the truth is that even intelligent people are ultimately guided and driven by psychological interpersonal influences.

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It's difficult to tell the difference between courage and faith in your convictions and just being confident in yourself and who you are. Though we associate genius with mental and intellectual superiority, the truth is that it takes emotional intelligence to trust ourselves like ourselves, and have faith in who we are as people, no matter how different we may be. When we succumb to peer pressure or twist ourselves out of shape because of other people's prejudices, expectations or judgments of us, we may do so because of a lack of self esteem. It takes a lot of emotional strength and maturity to say, I acknowledge other people's opinions of me, but I don't allow them to determine my fate. Only I determine my fate. If we can relinquish a belief in a deterministic future, we have no control over I. E. Fate.

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If we can own our own work and focus on that, leaving others to focus on their path, and if we can learn to be confident in the unique people we are, then we're well on the way to having the courage to go against the grain and perhaps even have a chance at being truly revolutionary. For some people, being a genius means being a celebrity or a much admired person that gets to enjoy their superiority over everyone else. In fact, a genius must learn to walk alone and to work on what they know is important, even if it takes many years to convince others of its value, if indeed they ever convince anyone. Imagine a solo entrepreneur working for years on a mission that barely anyone understands, or a visionary who has a picture of what they want to create, even though everyone else thinks it's strange precisely because it doesn't look like anything they've seen before. Whether you call it intellectual independence, free thinking, innovation, open mindedness, creativity, non conventionality, or simply going against the grain, this character trait is perhaps one that is most difficult to cultivate in ourselves. The biggest impediment is our fear of being disliked, rejected or judged by others. If we can tackle this and find a source of direction and purpose within, then we are far less vulnerable to the whims and opinions of others. If we want to live lives that resemble those of our intellectual heroes, one of the questions we must never stop asking is what do I value?

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What are my principles that I would follow no matter what? That, once again, is from Peter Holland's book Think Like a Genius. The audiobook is available on Amazon audible and itunes, and the print version, of course, on Amazon and maybe wherever fine books are sold. We'll wrap up today's episodes with the. Takeaways in just a moment. But first, just a few points of interest. If you want to feel less sure about yourself today and your own intelligence, take a look at this script's. National Spelling Bee.

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Those finals are today. Al Pacino might be 83 years old, but his girlfriend is 29 and they are expecting another child. We mentioned at the top that today is Dinosaur Appreciation Day, and it's also, which we didn't mention, don't Give Up the Ship Day commemorating a famous sea battle. But you combine those and you find that it matches in with some news from today. The high definition scan of the Titanic they've been doing for the last few months has revealed a megalodon tooth necklace that's been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for more than 100 years. Just some things you might use for some interesting conversations today. Let's wrap up today's episode with The Takeaways. Copernicus's and Galileo's genius traits included intellectual honesty and non conventionality.

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Copernicus was an astronomer who's been credited as being the first to put forward. The idea of Heliocentrism. It was Galileo who popularized and expanded these ideas after Copernicus's death. But Galileo also had many other accomplishments, including the invention of a telescope and the discovery of many great ideas in astronomy and mathematics. Galileo's ideas directly challenged the predominant religious worldview at the time, earning him scorn and even resulting in him being tried and convicted of heresy. He was forced to retract his statements under penalty of death. Galileo may have submitted to the Church's persecution, but his ideas were revived by other scientists in non Catholic countries until eventually the heliocentric model was taken as fact. By the end of the 18th century, both Galileo and Copernicus possessed an uncommon originality and independence of thought and pursued facts and evidence.

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Despite resistance from others. They both achieved what they did because they were intellectually honest and willing to. Pursue what they knew was right. We can follow in this spirit by understanding that sometimes success comes with a willingness to be disliked. If we can relinquish ideas of a deterministic fate, own our actions and our agency, and foster self esteem for who we are, then we're less susceptible to the judgments and criticisms of others. To be independent thinkers, we need to lower the value we give to social disapproval and increase the value we place on our own vision. To cultivate courage in ourselves, we can regularly check in with our own values and principles and align with them always. Many geniuses are powered by an unflinching commitment to their own path.

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, who filed for bankruptcy in: 2009

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en Keller, who passed away in: 1968