| | |  | Guy Kawasaki | | Home » | | | | | | | Description: | | At the age of 38, John D. MacArthur, a destitute high-school dropout, borrowed $2,500 to buy the Bankers Life & Casualty Company of Chicago; eight years later he'd made a million dollars. At the time of his death in 1978 he was the second-richest man in America and "notoriously tightfisted." But he left most of his two-and-a-half-billion-dollar estate in the form of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with only these instructions to his board of trustees: "I figured out how to make the money, you boys figure out how to spend it." Thus the MacArthur Prize, also known as the "genius grant," was born. The award cannot be applied for, and it is not limited to any particular field of interest. Its purpose "is to promote those leaps of creative thinking that may occur when gifted people are left to their own devices." For Uncommon Genius, Shekerjian interviewed forty MacArthur Prize winners--John Sayles, Peter Sellars, Ellen Stewart, and Derek Walcott among them--in an attempt to discover "how great ideas are born." While much of what she learns about the creative impulse is not exactly groundbreaking--it involves risk-taking, openness, concentration, resiliency, and a great love of the work--spending time with the creators she has chosen to include is fascinating. They bring these broad concepts to life by inviting us into their studios, offices, labs, even dorm rooms (the youngest interviewee, Mayan epigraphist David Stuart, was a Princeton student at the time) and discussing their own creative processes. There is much to be gleaned here, not only about how creativity applies itself to various fields (community action, political science, writing, art history, woodworking, and even being a clown), but about how to nurture your own "creative genius." --Jane Steinberg | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Denise Shekerjian | | Paperback:
| 272 pages | | Publisher:
| Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Publication Date:
| February 01, 1991 | | ISBN:
| 0140109862 | | Package Length:
| 7.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 12 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
HERD MENTALITY.Jul 15, 2008
Wonderful book, but let me highlight a few of its political lessons that are glossed over in reviews.
If you invent a better mouse-trap the establishment will likely slap you silly and ruin you if it can. Read Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED to learn how they do it.
Most people havent had a creative thought since they figured life out at 13. (Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll is the correct answer). So society views innovators and creators as thieves, lucky, or twisted-freaks. Your friends and family would be okay with MY MOTHER THE CAR re-runs, 24/7. Your clever ideas give them headaches and make them nervous.
It's easier to get picked for an NFL team (or Miss America)than it is to sell a poem, painting, or pill that cures ugliness.
1 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A happy findDec 08, 2006
I found this book via a "happy coincidence" (luck??). Long story- I was in China in a shop having a long conversation with the shop-keepers son. He had an interesting looking book so I asked what it was. It was a book on "mind-mapping" which looked like it might be useful in my work, and for a book that I am currently writing (on Lean Manufacturing). It was in Chinese so I couldn't understand it but it raised my curiosity. When I got back to the States I looked up Tony Buzan at the library and as I often do when I find a subject I am interested in I look at the neighboring books. I found "Uncommon Genius" and thought it might it might be applicable to research I was doing for another book on "success." I started to read the book and from the very first page nearly every key point identified by Ms. Shekerjian matched my own hypothesis on the subject of creating a successful life (and late in the book she mentions having multiple projects going and how they often are intertwined- like in my case- and how going from one to the other helps to maintain resiliency). I will be quoting and referencing many of the topics in this book! The "secrets" are really here is you study this book you will see a definite pattern to success in any endeavor- not just creative (although any endeavor in life is really just a form of creation isn't it?).
As I was reading I was also struck by the "prose" used by Ms. Shekerjian. Sometimes it was stretched, but I was amazed at the talent for language and vocabulary! Lot's of adjectives. I think the talent would be well spent on writing a novel! Denise, if you read this and are interested in collaborating on a novel send me a note. I have several ideas! Thanks for your great gift in this book.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
The best book I've found on creativity - an easy, useful, insightful readJul 15, 2005
This is my favorite book on creativity. It does an excellent job diving into the subject and coming up with realistic and practical answers about the creative process. It sends a good message that there isn't magic in the creative process - that creativity comes most from hard work and dedication - something that anyone is capable of. Its also an easy quick read which increases its attractivness and usefullness by ehnancing the underlying message that creativity isn't complicated and available to anyone to achieve.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Very worthwhile! Relevant to artists, scholars, scientistsDec 10, 2004
Shekerjian tackles a tough topic and succeeds in bringing it down to earth. "Geniuses," or MacArthur Fellows, at any rate, are humanized here. They aren't struck by lightning, or born with great discoveries. They are hard workers and they have personality traits well-suited to creative endeavors.
For a creative spirit such as myself, I was very intersted to glean insights from Shekerjian and from the MacArthur Fellows she spoke with. By normalizing these people, Shekerjian shows (among other things) that a.) people of all kinds of backgrounds can produce "genius," b.) "geniuses" work very hard, c. geniuses are capable of pursuing their interests in the face of criticism, defeat, and setbacks, d.) genius is fostered by play, by cross-pollination, by persistence, and by "doing," e.) et cetera--there are many more insights in the book.
Shekerjian's prose is easy to read and well-organized. The reader doesn't have to work to figure out this book, and instead profits from the considerable work that the author put into translating "genius." She's done the legwork, had the conversations, and had to decipher what can seem like the ineffable.
I'm glad I read the book. I took home many lessons for my own creative work; lessons that will hopefully linger for a long while. I recommend this book to artists, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and political activists. Geniuses are more ordinary than we suspect and they have more to share than their creations--they can share with us the process of creation itself.
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
The How is in the DoingNov 29, 2004
"How are creative people able to look at the same thing as everybody else but see something different?" Denise Shekerjian relying on interviews with forty MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winners tries to answer this in "Uncommon Genius." The Fellows, all having demonstrated creative genius across a variety of pursuits, provide a glimpse inside their own experience with the creative process.
"All were driven, remarkably resilient, adept at creating an environment that suited their needs, skilled at honoring their own peculiar talents instead of lusting after an illusion of self, capable of knowing when to follow their instincts, and above all, magnificent risk-takers, and unafraid to run ahead of the great popular tide."
This is a great read for both those who have already embraced their creative potential as well as for those who have not. Shekerjian surfaces the common threads of attitudes and behaviors that foster creativity. Creatives can use this book to build on the "why" of their creativity with confidence.
For those interested in developing their creative potential, the book eliminates the mystery and lays out the "how" of being creative. But to be successful, one needs to make an "act of faith" in the "act of doing." Shekerjian's "doing" includes:
1. Find your talent.
2. Commit to it and make it shine
3. Don't be afraid of risk. Or even failure, which if seen in its proper light, brings insight and opportunity.
4. Find courage by looking to something stronger and better than your puny vulnerable self.
5. No lusting after quick resolutions. Relax. Stay loose.
6. Get to know yourself; understand your needs and the specific conditions you favor.
7. Respect, too, your culture. We can't, any of us, escape the twenty-first century. It's tucked up around our collective chin as snugly and as firmly as the bedsheet.
8. Then, finally, break free from the seductive pull of book learning and research and the million other preparatory steps that could delay the entire span of a life and immerse yourself in the doing.
"Uncommon Genius' is written in an easy, engaging style. I had a difficult time putting the book down. And I will be unable to lend my copy out...as I have ruined it for others with my many notations, and highlights.
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