What are the qualities of great thinkers
How can one master the skill
1. Curiosity
2. The ability to be wrong
3. The ability to say “I don’t know” and then go find the answer
4. Honesty with self
5. Humility
6. Courage
7. Willingness to fail and try again
And again
And… well, you get the idea!
8. A deep understanding of one's field of expertise
“Deep” does not mean “complicated” but rather a simplicity born out of real mastery of the fundamentals and details of that field and its history, its players, its arcana, etc
I think this is key because greatness can only occur when you have mastered a field in depth so that you can see all its nuances and subtleties as well as its broad strokes
That way you can make connections across fields that others cannot make (and thus create new fields)
For example, Steve Jobs was obsessed with design from his earliest days at Apple but did not become truly great at it until he truly mastered computer technology (which he did by creating NeXT), music (which he did by buying Pixar), animation (Pixar), phones (Apple), etc
He wasn't just "good" at design but truly great because he was able to see the nuances across these fields and apply them to computers which had traditionally been designed by people who knew nothing about any other fields related to design except maybe architecture (which is different)
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