What Really Makes a Genius?

[Dagan]

Only a few times has anyone called me (moreover what I created) to be "genius." I don't know how to truly accept that, either. I create art (prose, film, music or drawings) because I'm just always going to, and to be absolutely honest, if I do create something that is so strikingly original, I assure you that I only did it because I just wanted that concept to exist because I couldn't find it from someone else to just sit and enjoy.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I have been calleda genius a couple of time just considered it hyperbole. Last time from my 4th cousin when I aproached her about the Da Vinci code she had 38,000 connections on her myheritage So I told her what I had seen so far, her response are you a genius, no just good at solving puzzles So I told her how about junior genius. The ability to see what others cannot can be mistaken for genius.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

So many genius in one video is their a connection are they like prime numbers.

 

[Crossbreed]

So many genius in one video is their a connection are they like prime numbers.

I hope not. The percentage of primes decreases as the sample size increases...

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Plot The birth dates birth date check the pattern how far apart are they I just see a crude pattern.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Watched the movie years ago on this guy really reminded me of my brother. brought me to tears watched alone.

 

[if6wasnin9]

People who think outside the box and think for themselves. They come up with better ideas than if they're working with or for someone else. Bach, Newton, Tesla, Edison. Von Braun invented the missile under direction of an evil govn't then brought it to the free world and did something good with it.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My favorite living genius. Is an Abel prize in the cards will see.

 

[vergil96]

I have been calleda genius a couple of time just considered it hyperbole.

I can't count how many times someone called me a genius. It makes me feel uncomfortable. It's nice, but it feels exaggerated. Is it even appropriate to make that extreme complements? I don't aspire to be better than others or have power over them or anything like that. I don't see the point, I want to do my own thing and not compare pears to bananas.

 

[Crossbreed]

I can't count how many times someone called me a genius. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

I have gotten contradictory responses (genius and the "R" word) at the same time. I heard that this was common even among non-autistic Mensans...

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My mother when I was in grade school lower half was told at first I was the R word then a year later the G word was used, she was really confused. Now I know the answer, Called the G word again when I told my fourth cousin I was working on finding the truth of the Da Vinci code. I think I scared her. Stuff I'm finding do not blame her.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

We often hear “high IQ” and “genius” mentioned together, but I’ve often wondered — how many people who’ve topped IQ tests have actually originated an idea? Not copied, not optimised, but truly created something new.

In my view, genius isn’t confined to the Einsteins or the Da Vincis of history. Any idea — big or small — that breaks new ground or solves a problem in a way no one else has before carries the spark of genius. It could be a world-changing scientific breakthrough… or a clever fix in daily life that makes you stop and say, “Why didn’t anyone think of that before?”

The interesting thing is, genius isn’t always loud. It doesn’t always come from those with academic honours or perfect scores. Sometimes it comes from the person who sees a connection others miss, who creates a bridge between unrelated ideas, or who solves a problem from a completely unexpected angle.

To me, genius is the ability to originate — not just to remember, calculate, or follow rules. And in that sense, it’s something we might overlook if we focus too much on formal measures like IQ tests.

What’s your definition of genius? And have you seen it appear in places people least expect?

The ability to originate... is a characteristic. In fact, small children, if left to their own imaginations, can originate all sorts of ideas and concepts... with varying amounts of success in the real world, but none-the-less, geniuses by that definition. Parents and the modern educational system often systematically inhibit that sort of thinking... turning geniuses into indoctrinated worker drones with just enough knowledge to do the tasks, but not enough of their minds left to question. A crime in many respects.

Traditionally, as you suggest, the term genius often refers to someone who has an ability to learn and deeply understand something at an extraordinarily rapid rate. Which not only means exceptional processing speed and memory, but also to have a detailed mind's eye view of the topic. As opposed to savantism, which is having an exceptional understanding and/or talent in something WITHOUT ever being exposed to it in the physical world... a 3-year-old who is fluent in 8 different languages without ever being exposed to them. Mozart... who was composing operas and symphonies for kings and queens as a small child.

Given our creative human history over the millennia, it is highly unlikely that innovations and even new inventions are simply created from a new and original idea. Like engineers... they look at current inventions... or physics... and say to themselves "How can I use that to create something new or better?" We all stand upon the shoulders of others... even geniuses in this regard. Right now, in our world today, there is a ton of innovation in many fields because of the timing of "converging technologies" make it possible... the renewable energy sector and AI are two of many examples. Theoretical physics may come close to this idea of "creating" something new in terms of theory or thought... but it is the person that can apply it in the real world, often through engineering, that is often credited with the "genius".

 

[velociraptor]

Knowing when to not argue with your wife.

 

[Outdated]

Knowing when to not argue with your wife.

From Terry Pratchet:

Deja-vu is the feeling that you've been here before. Reja-vu is the opposite of deja-vu and usually only happens when arguing with the wife. Reja-vu is that horrible sinking feeling that very shortly you're going to be back here again.

 

[velociraptor]

From Terry Pratchet:

Have you read Thief of Time? The Time Monks have a martial art called Deja Fu (the feeling you've been kicked in the head this way before).

 

[Outdated]

Have you read Thief of Time?

Never forget rule number one: "Beware of little old men that smile all the time."

He was one of my favourite authors, his jokes started to get a little stale in the end but after 42 novels on the same theme that's sort of to be expected.

 

[vergil96]

My favorite living genius. Is an Abel prize in the cards will see.

Being called a genius is a stretch. When I get to achieve as much as Einstein or Penrose, I'll reconsider my position I likely won't, it takes one person in a billion or more. I know better candidates for that.

 

[thejuice]

Good points. Perhaps to be a genius you need to be brave, to have the audacity to go against the grain. For example Galileo who challenged the church with his theory that the earth rotated around the sun instead of the opposite. He was treated as a heretic; it was lonely being a genius with an inconvenient, 'socially upsetting' pursuit of truth over dogma.

 

[Crossbreed]

Galileo's peers were wishy-washy. They readily accepted that theory when Copernicus proposed it 66 years earlier.