The Observer + An Alchemist = One Genius

This course is about learning our Five Faces of genius and using them to create a service project. Unit 2 was about learning our Five Faces and what each one means, and we looked at a lot of examples to show what they can be like. For our action project we have to explain what the Five Faces are, what my faces are, list three people and list their dominant faces, and show how we can use these faces to create two ideas for what we can do for a service project. What I learned in this unit was what my Five Faces were and how I can become more well-rounded with each of them. I am most proud about how I was able to actually learn how to use the other Five Faces.

A Seer is someone who uses the power of visualizing everything around them, they shut their eyes and see everything and anything. An Observer is someone who looks at all the small details on something, or they notice things that aren’t easily able to seen, with that they will try to solve problems. An Alchemist is someone who uses other ideas to create his or her own, or combines two unrelated ideas into something brand new. A Fool is someone who uses humor and weaknesses to solve problems or come up with wild ideas. A Sage is someone who uses simplicity to solve problems and looks at historical facts for inspiration. My two most dominant faces are Observer and Alchemist, and my weaker faces are Seer, Fool, and a Sage.

I do agree with my survey, because I am very much like an Observer for the fact that I like to just look around and notice small things that many people don’t usually see. For example when I go home from school I will just look at the small details in the train and bus; or when I am driving I basically have to do the same to protect myself from any dangerous things around me. I do very much believe I am also an Alchemist, because I like to see examples in work and use them to create my own idea. For example with a homework assignment that makes me come up with something, I will have to look at other ideas to create my own; or when I am in a debate with a group of people I usually like to be a judge or someone who isn’t in it, because I like to listen to both sides instead of just sticking with one. I do think I am a Seer at times, but not all the time because I like to draw, but I can’t always envision what I want to draw; or I can’t always see something in my head. I don’t agree with being a Fool, because I don’t really like to use my weaknesses as an advantage and I won’t try to be absurd with my ideas. I don’t really agree with my least dominant face being Sage because I like to try to simplify things, such as math problems and I do really try to learn from history, and use those to help me make hard decisions.

I interviewed my father, and from what I saw from my interview he was very much like a Fool, because he likes to use his humor and absurdity to come up with crazy ideas. I do also see him as an Alchemist, because he likes to mix ideas from other people and he always has a new one. I think he shows his Fool through his Alchemist, because when he mixes ideas they turn out to be crazy. Since my interview was mainly “yes or no” answers, I thought I would show a question that was very important to me: “Do you care if your food touches?” I feel like this was a good question to ask to show if he was an Alchemist, because when food touches it can create a new taste that people find very good. (He said yes, also telling me how much of an Alchemist he is.)

NVA “AA and NVA” 2013. Chicago

One person we studied in class that I found very inspiring was Sam Walton, because he came up with an idea that was so smart. I believe he is an Alchemist because he combined the idea of a supermarket and a low key town, and mashed them to create Walmart, which is one of the biggest and most successful stores. Besides that I also see him as a Fool, because he took an idea that was seen as crazy and showed people how a supermarket could actually do very well in a low key area/town. “Celebrate your success. Find some humor in your failures.” - Sam Walton

“S. Robson Walton in 2011” Wikipedia. June 2, 2011

Someone who inspires me that we didn’t study in class is Seth MacFarlane, because he created a show that no one thought would be good, which later became the top-grossing show; this shows how incredibly smart he is. I believe he is a Fool, because he is very absurd when trying to get major problems in our world across and he helps people realize the truth about subjects. I see him as a Seer, because all of his shows are animated and I feel like he is someone who really likes to visualize all of his ideas, because all of what he believes in he will show in all his cartoons. “Believe it or not, I have the same success rate as anyone else. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss.” - Seth Macfarlane

Gage Skidmore “Seth Macfarlane” July 25, 2010. Wikicommons.

Now to use the Five Faces as a tool to make a better world, the matters I would like to tend to are helping to find more resources for our everyday lives and getting people to help the homeless. I would want to become a better Seer, by truly envisioning my ideas and making them into better solution. I definitely like to use my Observer skills to actually show people the little things that we need to focus on in this world that they might not have noticed otherwise. I want to strengthen my Sage side by trying to make my ideas for helping a lot more simple instead of complex; or to stop thinking of ideas that can become complex. For the Alchemist I want to get people to start mixing their ideas about the world and use them so everyone can make a difference. Lastly for Fool, I would like to try use my weaknesses as a strength and use more absurdity when coming up with my new crazy ideas.

For my first idea, I would like to use my Alchemist idea for getting a foundation where people donate any resources they don’t need anymore, and give them to the homeless. Money would also be donated and with that money we would work with other foundations to get the people of our world to start to look for different resources that we could use for fuel, power, and construction, so our society can keep on working. This shows the Alchemist face, because I am mixing different, ideas together that aren’t similar.

For my second idea, I would like to use my Fool idea for actually coming up with a cartoon that will appear in the daily paper and this will make jokes about our world problems. What this would do is actually spread the word of what we need to start doing to fix our world and make it a better way, by using humor to do so, and also being very absurd with big matters that people aren’t very aware of today.


References:

“Seth Macfarlane Biography” n.p. Bio. n.d.
“Sam Walton Biography” n.p. Bio. n.d.