Strands of Genius: Why Great Thinkers Ask Divergent Questions, Sleep is Your Superpower, The First 20 Hours

Guest curated by Richard M. Afun, New Business & Marketing Assistant @ Iris

Sep 28, 2023

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, RICHARD AFUN ::

LOCATION: Borehamwood, London

I am Richard Afun. One of my biggest fascinations is the power of creativity and ideas to move the world forward. I enjoy spending time trying to decode complex things and systems, and as a result, I find myself asking a lot of questions, speculating, and, a good number of times, challenging things within reason and in the right context. I got to know and hear about Rosie and Faris from my master’s in advertising course at the London College of Communication, where they kindly gave a range of interesting thought-starters that the industry was interested in finding out more about, which helped me put my speculations into practice.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We strive to have a variety of different perspectives represented here, which is why sometimes you’ll hear from established professionals and sometimes you’ll hear from students or recent graduates. We always love when we get to have a former student from Paul Caplan’s MA Advertising at the LCC! Thanks for being here today, Richard!

:: THE LINKS ::

WHY GREAT THINKERS ASK DIVERGENT QUESTIONS

"To get a greater and more innovative output, we must be willing to ask new and different questions, and we must embrace creativity." This video is a must-watch for anyone who wants to improve their way of thinking and, by extension, their creativity. Natalie highlights the importance of asking questions—not just any questions but more divergent ones. Questions that lead to a process of inquiry and create room for unique answers and thinking. "Every question leads to a different output."She also hints at the conversation on AI and how we need to embrace creativity as our key differentiator. (YouTube)

SLEEP IS YOUR SUPERPOWER

One of those things that we sometimes compromise on is sleep. We are aware of its benefits and have a considerable amount of knowledge about what happens otherwise. What this talk by Matt does is give a much deeper insight into what truly happens when we find ourselves on different sides of the sleep spectrum.
One of the benefits that I found interesting is that sleep is an enabler for remembering and saving information, and even more important, sleep is needed before learning to prepare the brain for learning. He also makes a lot of correlations between sleep deprivation and illnesses, which I found really interesting. (YouTube)

THE FIRST 20 HOURS

Want to learn a new skill? Yes, you’ll need 10,000 hours—in context, that is doing a full-time job for 5 years. Is there another way? Yes. 20 hours can get you there, and it’s much less daunting than 10,000 hours, but the catch is that it would require a good amount of intentionality to get there. From Josh’s talk, with 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice, you’ll be astounded at how good you can get at learning something new. Very interesting talk that would get you into deep thought. (YouTube)

Looking for more from Richard Afun? Coming Friday, look for an interview from him in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Grand Theft Auto Five

:: City :: Accra

:: Book :: Alchemy: The surprising power of ideas that don't make sense by Rory Sutherland

:: Podcast :: The Missing Crypto Queen by Jamie Bartlett

:: Album :: Jamz by Sarkodie

:: QUOTE OF THE DAY ::

“Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now”. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

I do freelance photography for events, etc. If you want to get in touch with me please check out www.richardafun.com.

Everything is possible.

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius