I don't believe in geniuses. Furthermore, I think the entire concept of genius is damaging to the mental health and potential of everyone. When you call someone a genius, you insult two people; yourself and the one you elevate. You insult the one you exalt by attributing the achievement that earned your respect solely to an intrinsic quality in the exalted. You denigrate yourself by absolving yourself of the work and study it would have taken you to reach that achievement.
Here's a game to play: Find a biography, essay, or magazine article about a person that is generally considered to have achieved "greatness". Now, for every occurrence of the word 'genius' or its synonyms (prodigy, virtuoso, phenomenon, etc.) replace it with the phrase 'space wizard'. You will find that there are a number of essential qualities to Space Wizards (some of them conflicting):
1. Space Wizards are born differently than the rest of us.
Being born in space (usually near the magical planet Trondor), a Space Wizard's brain develops in the milieu of cosmic rays and pixie dust. The folds of their cerebral cortices lie at angles we cannot understand.
2. Space Wizards see things that we cannot.
Their eyes are tuned to the magical realm, and they perceive the background microwave radiation that washes over the universe. Thus, their insights are based on the impossibly imperceptible.
3. Space Wizards are more advanced than the rest of us.
A before earning the title Space Wizard, the individual spends a brief, naïve period as a mortal before suddenly realizing their inborn, latent potential. Only someone with this mysterious potential may Lick the Infinite (TM), and earn their Space Wizard Hat (C).
4. Space Wizards receive highly exclusive training.
On the planet Trandor near the Andromeda galactic core, Space Wizards get schooling from the Wizardo Masters. The study of Wizardo enables Space Wizards to advance through the stages of thought until they can split atoms with their bare hands. (Space Wizards have been known to break open atoms to get at the delicious quark center.)
5. You cannot become a Space Wizard.
You are neither magical nor from space. See Items 1 through 4.
The Space Wizard Game highlights the problem that I have with the genius concept: it is a status that is fundamentally unattainable. Accepting this tenet is a kind of defeatism. Why ambition? Why greatness? Why anything? Those are things that Space Wizards have and who knows how they get them?
I think I do.
I posit that anything anyone would call genius is primarily the result of careful study and hard work. Stay with me a minute, and try to block out the abundant memories of parental scolding I just summoned up there. (Sorry for not giving fair warning.) This isn't the Hard Work (TM) that Grandpa was telling you about. This isn't gettin' 'er done. This is every hour of study benefiting from the last and contributing to the next. This is the attitude that your time alive is like a rich seam of valuable minerals, and your insistence to slavishly and joyously mine it. This is an ever-growing impatience with and suspicion of time-sinks like television, main-stream media, and Twitter. This is "As a matter of fact I do NOT have too much time on my hands. Can I have yours? I can tell that you aren't doing anything with it!"
Let's imagine your potential as human being as a flat, infinite plane that spreads out in all directions. Achievements, hopes, and accomplishments reside above various spots on the plane that represent activities you may devote your time to. Some of these goals are miles overhead. Every hour you work earns you one paper-thickness to stand on. If you have taken the time to learn how to learn (I believe that ALL skills must be learned), meaning you have paid careful attention to how, when, and where you learn best, then you earn two paper-thicknesses per hour. During those special times when you really hit your stride and no telemarketers call, you get three. This paper is yours and it cannot be stolen or knocked over. ~ People will walk up to an exceptionally high stack of paper and say, "There is a genius working here!" then look up and shout, "I am in awe of you!" If the person laboring at the top of the stack isn't a jackass, they will say, "Oh, this really isn't so hard to believe. It's taken me quite a while to get here!" They will pull out a paper from the middle of the stack, perhaps out of shame of the bottom, and say "It's all built on top of each other." Of course, an observer at the bottom may not have a clear grasp of the middle, and this revealed paper might only deepen the observer's sense of an unattainable summit. Others will experience a sudden need to stack paper as soon as possible. [1]
This isn't to say that I do not believe in aptitude. Though most people are born with the same thinking hardware (barring cases of genuine physiological problems), there are variations that give rise to differences. I would wonder though, if some instances of "aptitude" aren't just internal rewards or curiosities tuned ever so slightly in favor of some activity or other, thus drawing the individual into a cycle of increasing gains surrounding the practice of that activity. After so many hours of practice, who is able to tell how much skill comes from practice and how much from aptitude?
Even though I do not believe there is any catalyst that might elevate a person to genius understanding and consciousness, I believe there is a list of factors that, if overlooked, may lead people to believe in the genius concept. Compare these to the list above:
1. Unmitigated curiosity from an early age.
Everyone is born with curiosity. However, society works hard to kill it, sometimes intentionally, as part of its stabilizing function. Some people are less able or less willing to leave it behind. That's either because they have a natural propensity for curiosity or they found early and consistent rewards for curiosity (See Item 2). Imagine being able to go back in time and credit every hour of watching cartoons with time spent trying to satisfy a desire to know more. I would bet money that your present-day benefits would be staggering!
2. A supportive environment.
The differences between good schools and bad schools are real. The differences between a supportive upbringing and a damaging one are also real. The damage or benefit compounds over time, is lasting, and is difficult to overcome.
Please don't think yourself a genius or hail others as geniuses. It harms us all. We need role models, for sure, but recognize them for their hard work, not their amazing Space Brains. The perpetuation of the genius myth cuts us off from dreams and condemns dreams to forever remain dreams, existing only on a far-off, magical planet.
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