In a sense a Methodical Mind (MM) is the opposite of Genius, a necessarily Chaotic Mind (CM).
I am not talking of people but phases of mind. Indeed in modern scientific world the two should and often do coexist.
Unlike in arts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin
The Chaotic Mind (CM) of Genius is like a brewing Summer Thunder Storm. I watched hundreds of these at KGP. They call them Nor'Westers and more colorfully: Kaal Baishakhi in Bengali.
At 3 PM it is broad daylight with sweltering weather, sweat pouring from all pores. At 3.10 it is dark as midnight. Huge cumulonimbus clouds swirling. And then a sudden gust of wind that could topple you and your scooter if you are careless.
And then a blinding flash of lightning dispelling all darkness..
CM is like that. And the chaos is a necessary precursor to that blinding flash of understanding.
Feynman wonderfully describes his passage through this phase just before the idea of Feynman Diagrams hit him.
In a way Feynman is different than the other geniuses of modern scientific world. He was unable to get down to the MM phase quickly enough to pass on his Message to his audience at Shelter Island and later on needed Dyson's MM to clarify and integrate everything that he invented into mainstream physics.
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The Extreme Chaotic Mind (ECM) is like perennial hail storm and is often confined to the asylum. The Extreme Methodical Mind (EMM) is his opposite. He is like perennial sunshine. He too ought to be confined but by a loophole in the Law is let loose.
He is All Order all the time. Nil Chaos.
EMM's motto is: "A place for everything and everything in its place".
He is somewhat like RKN's Library Builder.
Our EMM is preoccupied with funds, building, shelves, Inaugural Ceremony; everything except books which come last. When the dust has settled down EMM would order just enough number of books in various disciplines that exactly fill the book-shelves, not an inch to spare.
Once they are in, he would catalog them, arrange them discipline-wise, and Open the Library to Readers who are inconsequential in his scheme of things. An Open-Access System where anyone can reach any shelf, pick up any book he likes, bring it to the table, flip through it and push it away is anathema to EMM.
His Heaven would be a Library in which no reader is allowed to spoil his Orderliness. It would be like Salar Jung Museum with books locked up in shelves with glass doors so that people can see without touching, and appreciate their beauty.
Life with an EMM is tough at home.
He may be all love to you and permit you to bring down that COD for you to browse. But then you would suddenly hear the pipe music of the itinerant bull-artist who visits homes with his decorated bull and makes him dance a few steps; and you would rush out. By the time you return to your table in 5 minutes EMM would have kept the COD back in its place:
"A place for everything...."
EMM would then enter the kitchen and try to help his wife in her absence by cleaning up everything and rearranging all the chaotic spoons, ladles, cups and saucers, dishes and utensils according to their weight: lightest ones on the top shelf and heaviest at the bottom.
Wife would return from her gossip-session and all Hell would break lose...
He would then descend on the toy-kit of his grandkid and rearrange every toy according to its price: Softies from the US at the top (out of reach) and the tin-ones at the bottom so Ishani could cut her fingers every once in a while:
And he alone knows where Dettol and Cotton Roll are.
EMM is brimming with Lists....they fill his mind....he is never listless..
OK, let me just describe what happened to an EMM Friend of mine a half century ago:
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EMM was transferred from Nellore (NLR) to Rajahmundry (RJM). He asked everyone to let him handle everything so that there would be no "too many cooks to spoil the broth".
They shifted family on the Madras-Howrah Mail, notorious those days for 2-minute halts at every place except Vizagh (VZH) where there was a change of Engines...a half-hour halt.
EMM got down from the train at RJM with his family and trunks all safe and sound except for the last Box (Number 12) which was missing.
He went to the Station Master (SM) at RJM to lodge a Complaint:
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EMM: Please send a Wire to SM, VZH to safe-keep the last box of mine which couldn't be unloaded because of heavy rush.
SM: Give me the details
EMM: Train Number: 3 Up; Engine Number: MS 135672; Bogie Number: 6743; Position from Engine: 6; Seat Number: 35; Box Number:12 written in white indelible paint on top; Lock Number: PP 647; Lock Make: Godrej Navtal; Here is the Key Number: 26782
SM (Recovering from his swoon): How did you number your boxes...just curious..?
EMM: According to their priority of unloading: Box 1: Kitchenware; Box 2: My Sherlock Holmes, Thurber and Wodehouse Novels; Box 3: My Toolkit with hammers, screw drivers, nails to hang the pictures in Box 4 on the walls...Box 5...
SM: OK! OK!! OK!!!; What is there in the last Box 12 that is to be unloaded last?
EMM: Silk Sarees of my wife: 3 Banarasi, 5 Gadwal, 4 Kanjeevaram. 6 Tussore and 11 Venkatgiri..
THE END
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