The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
Written by Eric Weiner
Narrated by Eric Weiner
4/5
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About this audiobook
In this “intellectual odyssey, traveler’s diary, and comic novel all rolled into one” (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. A “superb travel guide: funny, knowledgeable, and self-deprecating” (The Washington Post), he explores the history of places like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. With his trademark insightful humor, this “big-hearted humanist” (The Wall Street Journal) walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?”
“Fun and thought provoking” (Miami Herald), The Geography of Genius reevaluates the importance of culture in nurturing creativity and “offers a practical map for how we can all become a bit more inventive” (Adam Grant, author of Originals).
Eric Weiner
Eric Weiner is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Geography of Bliss (now a docu-series featuring Rainn Wilson) and The Geography of Genius, as well as the critically acclaimed Man Seeks God and The Socrates Express. A former international correspondent for NPR, his work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the anthology Best American Travel Writing. He lives with his family and a menagerie of animals in the Washington, D.C. area. For more information, visit: EricWeinerBooks.com.
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Reviews for The Geography of Genius
96 ratings11 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Easily forgettable, most part of the world was left out!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very enjoyable book! will be goong back to it from time to time!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very profound discussion on the origins of some of the most spectacular ideas and works of geniuses across time and space.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Exceptional audiobook, the amazing intertwined story telling of his adventurous pilgrimage with nuggets of facts and wisdom, was a absolute pleasure to hear!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I guess I am too much of a linear thinker. This book seemed like an accretion of facts and interviews that were thrown together, it just did not work for me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reading "The Geography of Genius" by Eric Weiner felt like I was on the journey with him. The Author seeks to determine why genius occurs geographically in clusters. He travels all over the globe, going to Athens, Greece to the Silicon Valley to try and figure out if there is a reason why genius seems to pop up (genius is meant as a time when greats were alive at the same time, such as Beethoven and Mozart, Socrates and Plato, etc.) randomly throughout time around the globe. If you are reading this book and hoping it is filled with 100% accurate facts, you will be disappointed. If you are desiring to go on a journey and learn about new places/people, then you will be delighted. The Author has chosen the 1st person narrative for this book and it works.Also, it is not a book to be read in one sitting... it is more of read a chapter, put down and digest.***I received this book through GoodReads Member Giveaway. The opinion is solely my own.***
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Having taken on the geography of happiness in The Geography of Bliss, author Eric Weiner now turns his attention to the geography of genius. Weiner takes a close look at places on the earth that have been hotspots of creativity in the past and then visits these places with an eye out for causation. A fascinating read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just turned the last page of Eric Weiner's third book, The Geography of Genius. What a very interesting read this was! Along with being a great travel book, the topic at hand is that of "what makes a genius?" Are they born this way, or are they cultivated by the history of their times, with their environment, or by the influence of their mentors and competitors? Eric once again as in his first two books, embarks on a long journey of discovery as he whisks us from ancient Athens, Rennaissance Florence, 19th Century Edinburgh, the early 1900s of Vienna Austria, and finally finshes in Silicon Valley. The reader delightfully meets Socrates and Aristotle, as well as Michaelangelo and Da Vinci. As you read you will hear the music of Mozart and Beethoven, and crawl inside the mind of Sigmund Freud. You will see the ruins of ancient Athens, see the paint on Leonardo's palette, and smell the Indian spices in Old Calcutta. All while drawing your own conclusions as to just what does make a "Genius". Two thumbs up, 5 stars!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Eric Weiner did so ably with happiness in “The Geography of Bliss,” he attempts to do with genius in his 2016 book “The Geography of Genius.” Well, almost. This time he includes the time element to his geographical considerations, true geniuses gathered in one place being even more rare than happy people. So while he looked for the happiest places in the world today in the former book, this time he seeks the great places of genius in history.This search takes him to Athens at the time of Socrates, Plato and Thucydides; Florence at the time of DaVinci and Michelangelo; Edinburgh at the time of Adam Smith, James Watt and James Hutton; and Vienna at the time of Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven.Some places of genius may surprise readers. Calcutta, for example. Calcutta? Well, yes. From about 1840 to 1920, fueled in part about by the influence of the British Empire, this city produced a number of men of genius, such as Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, who is still revered in India.Of the places of genius Weiner discusses, only Silicon Valley still exists as such today, but the author opines that its days may be numbered. As places of genius go, it is already getting long in the tooth.Weiner travels to each of these places, and others, to see what they are like today and to discuss with local authorities the reasons why genius bloomed, however temporarily, in these particular locales and not others. Although he tries to generalize, the reasons seem to vary from place to place. In Calcutta, he determines that cultural chaos may have stimulated genius, except that such chaos doesn't seem to be working today.In Florence he says that genius is always communal, one genius stimulating another. In Scotland he finds that genius is practical and has a high tolerance for ambiguity. Tension is necessary in Vienna. In Silicon Valley he gives a share of the credit to moving vans, the fact that great computer minds keep coming and going, moving from one company to another, failing with one idea but then going on to the next.In summary he says that creative cities need three T's: technology, talent and tolerance. And three D's: disorder, diversity and discernment. Yet true genius remains something that cannot be cultivated or predicted. Mostly it's just a matter of luck.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Geography of Genius moves alternately between inspiring, intriguing, and repetitive.With the plethora of Genius definitions offered, a takeaway is hard to remember,which will make reading again a relaxing pleasure.It would have been welcome if the author had offered the Genius of Jazz or Creative New Music,tracing the lineage from the often forgotten roots of so called Classical Music to the amazingcreativity of 20th and 21st century Improvisation. Eric Weiner mentions Beethoven as a prime example of early improvisation. It would be welcome to have comparisons and contrastswith the high creative activity and intelligence of America's music greats - John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Roscoe Mitchell...and the cities that fostered them.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Book on CD read by the author The subtitle is all the synopsis you need: A Search for the World’s Most Creative Places, from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley.Weiner explores the culture of various cities and eras that resulted in an environment that fostered genius – Ancient Athens, Hangzhou in the time of the Song Dynasty, Renaissance Florence, 18th century Edinburgh, Calcutta from about 1840 to 1920, Vienna with TWO golden ages, separated by nearly a century (Mozart to Freud), and California’s Silicon Valley.He looks at whether individual effort was more important than cooperation within a group; how financial need influenced the genius; the role of nurture vs nature; and the preponderance of failure which spurs the genius to continue working. It’s an interesting book, but not a particularly compelling one, and there were times when I just zoned out. Still, I learned a little about a variety of subjects.Weiner reads the audio book himself. He clearly has a passion for the subject, which is especially evident in the epilogue.