Creative genius comes in pairs
/
Image from The BBC
“Everyone falls into creative ruts, but two people rarely do so at the same time.”
The world’s greatest accomplishments were not realized by individuals but through partnerships. So it is described in Joshua Wolf Shenk’s 2014 book, Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs. Shenk writes of a “creative intimacy” that emerges when two or more people share “an extraordinary rapport and sense of self-identification.”
Shenk observes that although greatness often emerges from not one but many partnerships, each partnership often forms in pairs. The media typically regards such partnerships as outliers in the annals of cultural, industrial, and intellectual success. But as Shenk shared in his 2014 Microsoft Research presentation on his findings, “it began to seem that, through many variations and manifestations, it was constantly underneath the creative process,” no matter the circumstances.
The Myth of the Lone Genius
“Charlie does the talking. I just move my lips.”
Human culture celebrates the drama of the individual—the hero or industrialist who only alone can achieve greatness. But the stories we tell don’t often reflect those individuals’ everyday lives.
Shenk shared in his 2014 presentation that he “began to see relational excitement operating in places where I thought there had been a lone genius.” What’s actually fueling history’s greatest biographies—Einstein, Van Gogh, Jean-Paul Sartre—are powerful and enduring partnerships.
Historically, the public has not been receptive to stories about genius that aren’t attributed to a single person. In her 2019 article, Michelle Santiago Cortés observes, “the conversation around creative pairs can be inhibiting… preventing others from opening themselves up to the possibilities of such a relationship.” She goes on to describe how renowned author Thomas Wolfe, following a brilliant collaboration with his editor and friend, Maxwell Perkins, distanced himself from the editor when the public questioned whether or not Thomas was the sole author of his work.
In fact, Maxwell Perkins goes unrecognized in shorthand stories about a number of famous authors with whom he worked. Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald both benefited from Perkins’ brilliance. Such is the fate of many brilliant partners as ‘the myth of the lone genius puts pressure on pairs to make the authorship of their work clear,” as Cortés describes. Let’s observe some of the other partnerships that often go unmentioned in our public discourse.
Creative Pairs Have Shaped History
“When we were together, we bent our wills so firmly to the requirements of this common task that even at the moment of parting we still thought as one.”
In his reflection on historic figures, Shenk boldly claims, “On closer inspection…the primary creative unit is actually the pair.” There is no better example than that of the public’s most storied “lone genius,” Albert Einstein.
In his 2014 presentation, Shenk describes how Einstein arranged for his good friend, Michele Besso, to have a job at the Swiss patent office that employed Einstein from 1902 – 1909. Einstein published a number of brilliant papers during his tenure there, including his special theory of relativity. Einstein and Besso would collaborate on long walks during their lunches; As Einstein himself described, “It was as though the human contingency did not exist” between them when they did.
Experts have slowly uncovered some truths about another “lone” genius, Vincent Van Gogh, and his close partnership with his brother, Theo Van Gogh. One of Vincent’s portraits—long-believed to be a self-portrait—was recently revealed to be a portrait of Theo.
“My pictures are not yet good enough to compensate for the advantages I have enjoyed through you. But believe me, if one day they should be good enough, you will have been as much their creator as I, because the two of us are making them together.”
Closer inspection of Vincent’s history reveals Theo not as an “incidental supporter, but really a co-creator of that body of work… Theo was as responsible for the works attributed to [Vincent] as he was,” Shenk described.
The creative power of these partnerships and how they changed humanity is astonishing, but perhaps more believable when we consider the improbability of the “lone genius” narrative to which we’re accustomed. What’s truly astonishing is “how ubiquitous they are,” as Cortés describes: “Whether it’s revolutionizing home computers or writing pop songs, creative duos have been busy transforming seemingly every facet of our lives since the days of Adam and Eve.”
Conclusion
“If we want to impress a client or do a piece of long-form content without worrying about the end product, the Rand brothers are who we go to.”
The inspiration for this particular article should be no surprise—genius or not, Mike and I have been a creative pair all our lives. With that in mind, one of Shenk’s observations from his 2014 presentation stood out more than most: “One of the characteristics of these partnerships is, it’s very hard to summarize what the two partners do for each other.”
We often prefer stories where we can attribute either blame or credit to an individual. I hope that the stories of future genius—and future work in general—will regale not the sole actor overcoming impossible challenges and the opposition of others, but transformative partners accomplishing shared goals.
It’s been shown that modern employees “prefer working in groups that offer a sense of unity and collaboration over division and competition.” Perhaps it’s time our tales of glory reflect that.
