Shared Genius Culture Characteristics
Geography of Genius:
Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Places
by Eric Weiner
Eric Weiner wrote about the 8 genius cultures he found around the world.
Athens, Greece
Hangzhou, China
Florence, Italy
Edinburgh, Scotland
Calcutta, India
Vienna, Austria @ 1800
Vienna, Austria @ 1900
Silicon Valley, California USA
Below are the characteristics these genius cultures share, according to Eric Weiner.
Does your culture include any of these characteristics?
Which characteristics could you work on adding to your culture?
Athens, Greece
Hangzhou, China
“…enlightened leaders.”
“Hangzhou, like Athens, was a trading city.”
“…crossroads of goods and ideas…”
“…destination for visitors…”
Athens had its “…bustling agora.” Agora means marketplace, a “place where people gather.”
“The Athenian agora was the original everything store.”
Anything in the ancient world could be found at the Athens agora, including:
Figs
Fresh produce
Dried fruit
Flowers
Porridge
Honeycombs
Legumes
Lambs
Fish
Spices
Perfumes
Footwear
Horses
Water clocks
Witnesses to summonses
Givers of evidence
Lawsuits
Allotment machines for random jury selection
Laws
Indictments
Thieves market for stolen goods
Hangzhou was a city with “…constant pandemonium” and “…pleasure grounds.”
Visitors could…
Learn “…to play the Chinese transverse flute.”
“…take an acting class…”
“…marvel at the perennial circus…” of “…tightrope walkers, jugglers, sword swallowers, comedians, wrestlers, performing ants.”
Pages 22, 31, 69
Athens, Greece
Florence, Italy
“Not since Athens has one city produced so many brilliant minds and good ideas…”
Functional art
Athens
Florence
“…to promote Christianity and, more specifically, the Catholic Church.”
“…pure propaganda.”
Page 98, 120, 121
Influential Supporters
Athens
Aspasia, “…consort of Pericles.” (Pericles was a politician and general in Athens.)
“The people of Athens feared her.”
“A socialite who brings people of disparate interests together.”
Florence
Andrea del Verrocchio, “…mentor and businessman…” who ran a botegge, an art workshop
‘…an informal, sometimes chaotic system…that recognized, cultivated, and, yes, honored talent.”
Head Priest Nicholaio Bicchellini at Santo Spirito Church
“..allowed Michelangelo to do his dissections at night.”
(Bicchellini risked excommunication to let sculptor Michelangelo dissect cadavers.)
Pages 36, 107, 122, 123
Athens, Greece
Hangzhou, China
Florence, Italy
“…restless place.”
“…never said ‘Good enough.'”
Page 138
Athens, Greece
Edinburgh, Scotland
“…rough and stingy…”
…”Smell of Filth…”
Page 143
Edinburgh, Scotland
Silicon Valley, California USA
Consider themselves “trailblazers.”
“And like Silicon Valley, medical Edinburgh was very much a case of group genius.”
Page 148
Athens, Greece
Florence, Italy
Edinburgh, Scotland
“…genius clings to the small.”
“Small places are more intimate…”
“…more likely to direct their eyes outward…”
“…more likely to accumulate the varied stimuli that…make us more creative.”
“…more likely to ask questions…”
“…try harder.”
Page 157
Athens, Greece
Edinburgh, Scotland
“Edinburgh, like Socrates’ Athens, was a city of gab…”
Page 170
Florence, Italy
Edinburgh, Scotland
“…the learning flowed in two directions, not only from professor to student but also from student to professor.”
“…a more formalized and broad-based version of what took place in Verrochio’s workshop.”
Page 180
Athens, Greece
Florence, Italy
Edinburgh, Scotland
Calcutta, India
Birth-of-the-Modern Vienna, Austria
“…conversation plays an important role in any creative milieu…”
Athens Symposia
Symposia were gatherings for people “to drink together.”
“…diluted wine and clever wordplay.”
“…philosophical musings…”
Florence Art Workshops
“…give-and-take…”
Edinburgh Flyting in Clubs
Flyting means “verbal jousting.”
“…ritual humiliation of your opponent by verbal violence”
“…the opposing sides headed to the local pub for a few pints.”
“…never personal.”
“…battle of ideas…”
Calcutta Adda In Homes, In Coffeehouses, At Tea Stands
Adda means “a conversation with no point” and “nonlinear conversation.”
“…nonlinear beauty…”
“…conversation with no point…”
“…no transitions…”
“…great forum for asking questions.”
Viennese Coffeehouses
“…a secular cathedral, an idea incubator, an intellectual crossroads…”
“…levelers…”
“…no one is better than anyone else.”
Pages 38, 171-173, 212-214, 253
Athens, Greece
Musical Vienna, Austria (@1800)
“…didn’t reject the foreign nor…import it unquestioningly”
“…absorbed and synthesized…” the foreign into “…something new.”
Page 220
Florence, Italy
Birth-of-the-Modern Vienna, Austria (@1900)
“As we saw in Florence…new information is crucial.”
In Vienna, newspapers provided “…what was happening around the corner, or halfway around the world.”
Coffeehouses with “…conversation and companionship.”
Page 254
Vienna, Austria (Coffeehouse)
Calcutta, India (Adda)
“The conversation unfolded completely nonlinearly, like a Calcuttan adda.”
“We collect dots in the company of others. We connect them by ourselves.”
Page 255
Musical Vienna, Austria (@1800)
Birth-of-the-Modern Vienna, Austria (@1900)
“…international, a crossroads of cultures…”
Page 256
Calcutta, India
Silicon Valley, California USA
“…kinetic energy…”
“The region Siliconizes ideas just as India Indianizes them.”
Pages 300, 302
Birth-of-the-Modern Vienna, Austria
Silicon Valley, California USA
“…the benefits of an immigrant society…”
Page 303
Athens, Greece
Florence, Italy
Silicon Valley, California
“…closest thing we have to a modern day Athens or Florence.”
Page 305
Athens, Greece
Edinburgh, Scotland
Silicon Valley, California USA
Athens
“…motivated by something other than financial gain.”
Edinburgh
“…not just thinkers but tinkers.”
Silicon Valley
“…making the world a better place…”
“…most closely resembles Edinburgh.”
Pages 307 to 308
Athens, Greece
Silicon Valley, California USA
“What they borrow (or steal) from foreigners they perfect.”
Page 312
Places Of Genius
“…always welcome new information, new ideas.”
Page 130
Florentine artist Filippo Brunelleschi visited Rome with friend Donatello to examine ancient ruins, …”searching for the booty of ancient knowledge.” The Pantheon inspired Brunelleschi to build the Duoma, the dome over the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
Replicas of the Duoma now appear in many countries on county courthouses, old post offices, and the U.S. Capitol.
Pages 127, 128
“…densely populated…”
“…intimate, and intimacy always includes a degree of trust.”
Page 168
All Great Places
“…contain an element of free-for-all, a chink in time when the old order has crumbled and a new one is not yet cemented.”
“…individualism combined with gregariousness.”
“…one is alone together. Sometimes this happens by design. Sometimes by coincidence.”
Pages 128, 214, 215
Every Golden Age
“…wealth and freedom.”
“…a crucial third ingredient: uncertainty.”
“Every golden age needs discerners, people gifted in the ability to distinguish good ideas from bad ones…”
Athens
“…the polis, the citizens.”
Musical Vienna
“…the royal court and discerning listeners.”
Florence
“…the patrons, especially the Medicis.”
Pages 138, 310, 312
The End Genius Cultures
Audience member question:
“So the first seven chapters you have in the book were about places from the past that had genius. And obviously the eighth chapter is about Silicon Valley, which is still ongoing. What do you see from your visits out there, and looking at the previous seven examples, are the threats to having it end in Silicon Valley? That period of genius.
Is there something, one or two, three, things that you see are early indicators that something’s going wrong?”
Eric Weiner answer:
“That’s a very good question. First of all, the idea of it ending is not out of the question, because these golden ages tend to last a few decades, maybe half a century, maybe a century at the outside, right. And rarely do they see the end coming. I don’t think anyone in Detroit in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, saw the end coming.
I think the biggest threat can be summed up in one word, and that’s arrogance. I think if you become arrogant, you lack ignorance. You lack that humility. Which is, the humility of, there’s things I don’t know.
I think staying in one industry, and being a one note town, albeit one that plays in different keys, is dangerous.
All these other places I looked at, historically, were pretty much, with the exception of Vienna in the 1800s and 1700s with music, were interdisciplinary. There was a lot going on. And not only does that diversify, spread out the risk, it also is more likely to have different fields sparking off one another.
Often a breakthrough in one field like art, might lead to a completely, a breakthrough in a completely unrelated field like science, technology.
So I’m concerned about arrogance. And I see some signs of bling out there I hadn’t seen 10 years ago, always the canary in the coal mine. And I’m concerned about the specialization. Pixar is probably the best example of combining Hollywood and Silicon Valley. I would say those are my two big concerns.
But my theory on Silicon Valley is that it has nothing to do with technology, really. The product is technology, of course, but the process is a creative ecology that’s very good at recognizing good ideas. Not really inventing them, the cell phone, correct me if I’m wrong, was not invented in Silicon Valley. And I even think venture capital came from New York.
But they’re good at–ideas aren’t born there, they come of age there. If they remain good at that, and good at importing ideas, they can stay fresh for a little while, I think.”
Geography of Genius / Eric Weiner / Talks at Google
47:19 to 49:58
Not Invented Here Syndrome
Arrogance can create a “reality distortion field” for decision makers. That distortion led to a $1 billion loss for Apple before Steve Jobs’ return.
Not Invented Here Syndrome leads to missing the opportunities of different ideas from people who are different.
Needing ownership means failing to tinker.
Tinkering with someone else’s idea opens doors to new opportunities for you and gives you ownership of the tinkered idea.
“Not Invented Here Syndrome explained”
Sean Kenehan
Learnosity
No Date
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© Paula M. Kramer, 2025
All rights reserved.
Updated June 17, 2025
