Why are crazy people more likely to succeed than ordinary people?

1

Who will you choose to save?

Before we begin, I would like to ask you two questions:

A: If a runaway train is coming and five people are trapped on the track in front of it , too late to escape. And you can just pull the direction brake and let the train go to the other track, but there is also a person trapped on the other track. So what do you do now? Will the direction brake be flipped? Will you save those five people?

B: The same out-of-control train is coming, and the same five people are trapped on the track, but this time you are standing on the platform next to the track, and there is a fat man in front of you. The only way to save the five people is to push the fat man down. He will definitely die after falling, but his huge body can block the train and give the five people time to escape. So, will you push him down?

Presumably everyone has their own choice on these two issues. The same is true of sacrificing one person to save five people, but when making a decision, A makes it easier for people to make a decision, while B often puts more psychological pressure on people.

Why is this?

The answer to this question lies in the book "Why Madmen Are More Likely to Succeed than Ordinary People" by Kevin Dutton, which I would like to recommend today.

The book points out that A is a moral dilemma that is “not related to personal feelings” and involves the part of the brain that is mainly responsible for reasoning and rational thinking; while B is a moral dilemma that is “related to personal feelings.” A moral dilemma involving the parts of the brain that govern emotion. So obviously, when you are making a decision, emotional issues are always more difficult to decide than rational ones.

But what does this have to do with "madman"?

Kevin Dutton said in the book that when it comes to problem A, the "madman" makes the same simple choice as an ordinary person; but when it comes to problem B, the "madman" will make completely different choices than ordinary people. They will still push the fat man down without hesitation, without being bothered by emotions, which can also be called ruthless.

Two

Are madmen and geniuses similar?

After reading the answer to this question, let’s get to know the author Kevin Dutton. He is a world-class authoritative expert in the field of psychiatry and a researcher in psychiatry at the Royal Society School of Medicine and Social Sciences. member. His discoveries in the field of psychiatry have been tracked and reported by the Discovery Channel.

Kevin Dutton has a mentally ill father and a mentally ill best friend. He has devoted himself to studying mental illness for more than 30 years. In order to obtain the most authentic information, he did not hesitate to "modify" himself into a mental patient, stay alone in a room with the most dangerous mental patients, and finally decode the unique personality characteristics, thinking and behavioral patterns of mental patients.

This book is based on his research on a large number of cases and found that those psychopaths who are considered the most callous and dangerous actually have the same personality traits as those we usually think of as geniuses:

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Fearless, ruthless, charming

Focus, perseverance, mindfulness, action

These qualities are why they are more likely to succeed than ordinary people.

Three

What are the characteristics of psychopaths?

In the above, we know the seven traits that make "crazy people" more likely to succeed than ordinary people. We also described the trait of ruthlessness at the beginning. Now we will select three more traits to elaborate on.

①Charisma

Psychopaths are extremely charming. The author believes that this is a very powerful force, and if it is actually used, it is easy to benefit from it.

I don’t know if you have seen the movie "The Story of Steve Jobs". In a scene near the end of the movie, before Jobs took over Apple again, he wandered around the company and finally arrived at the design department. The department manager's eyes lit up as soon as he saw Jobs, and he was deeply impressed by Jobs after chatting for a few words. Although this plot is a bit exaggerated, you can see the charm of Jobs from it. This kind of charm did not only come after he achieved something. When he first started his business, he found different people to join him, including later discussing cooperation with investors. Jingdu Jun believes that Jobs’ personal charm also played a big role in this. effect.

The famous Korean host Yoo Jae Suk, he himself looks average, even ugly, but his personality charm due to his usual style and attitude makes him very popular among men, women, old and young in Korea, and he is very popular wherever he goes, becoming zero The national host with negative reviews also made his career smooth.

Personal charm seems to be relatively illusory, but it does have a great influence on whether a person can achieve success, and sometimes it can also become a powerful weapon for victory.

②Focus

It’s still Steve Jobs. When he returned to Apple, the first thing he did was to make cuts. He cut off two-thirds of Apple’s projects and focused on new products. The functions and designs are also subtracted. We can see that early products such as shuffle and nano are very simple. This is concentration, concentrating on doing one thing, and never giving up until the goal is achieved.

The author believes that these psychopaths know how to focus better than ordinary people and can do what they want to do without any distractions. Hannibal, the psychiatrist doctor in "Silence of the Lambs", can study wholeheartedly which parts of the human body are the most delicious. Although he is a devil, he is a leader in this field.

In our life and work, if a person can concentrate on doing things, both efficiency and quality will be significantly improved. We always worry about why we are not as good as others. Is it actually because we are not as focused as they are on doing things?

③Perseverance

The book says: "Ignore obstacles and you will be successful."

Since childhood, we have known many examples of perseverance. Example:

Hawking, known as one of the most outstanding scientists in history, suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease and was confined to a wheelchair for 20 years, but he was physically and mentally disabled. Overcoming disability and becoming a supernova in the international physics community;

After Beethoven became deaf in both ears, he did not just blame others, but persisted in his music creation. When he was deaf and couldn't hear, he used chopsticks to insert into the piano's sound generator, using vibrations to identify tones, and finally created the famous "Ninth Symphony";

When the Soviet writer Ostrovsky lost his sight in combat, By dictating the content, he completed the novel "How Steel Was Tempered";

...

Intensive Reading believes that there is a secret behind these people's success and leaving their names in history. Their hardships are far greater than those of ordinary people, but they have overcome their own disease obstacles and achieved great achievements that are difficult for many people to achieve.

Four

Geniuses are on the left, lunatics are on the right

These qualities possessed by psychopaths make it easier for them to achieve success. In this regard, do we Should we live "crazy" like them?

We need to emphasize that the "madman" in the title of the book is not a psychopath in the traditional sense as we think of it, but refers to those who have mental illness and do not necessarily have violent tendencies, such as murder. Madman, surgeon, spy, CEO, etc. The same traits, when used in the right place, usually lead to great success, such as Steve Jobs; but if used in the wrong place, they can cause all kinds of heinous crimes, such as Hannibal.

So, in this book, we not only need to learn these characteristics, but also understand how to grasp their "degrees". There is only a difference between heaven and hell, as the author said:

Psychiatric illness is like sunlight. Exposure may cause cancer and accelerate a person's death. However, regular exposure to the sun and reasonable exposure to sunlight will have a positive effect on health and life.

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