what is genius, how do we measure it?

[Ronald Zeeman]

I think more generally, what you find in life is that there is so little agreement on what is important, that there is probably no meaningful or consistent definition as to what genius is. Some people think Richard Feynman was a genius because he was a particle physicist, but he greatly regretted contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Did he still feel like a genius afterwards? How can anyone so smart be so dumb? There's a pattern there.

He never regretted making the bomb if I asked my dad who had very personal experiences with evil ideologues I Could see their perspective.

 

[Levitat0r]

During the world war a number of physicists got together to design a new destructive weapon all were very bright
fitting the definition of geniuses, all were very bright IQs of 170 to 190 or greater. one the most prominent refused to get involved. Considered not as bright as the others, but still extraordinary mind now as time has passed, he still stands heads and shoulders above the others. I even see of his IQ now as being stated as 200 plus, just because how else could it be explained. Was he the real genius used the same math as the others Currently the brightest living physicists a guy named Edward Witten so bright he makes his peers fear his intellect. Is he a genius or just extremely
bright.

The real genius is to do right. There are some extremely clever crooks, whom we would call devious, but compared to someone like a firefighter, who is the "genius"? If we start looking at it from the question of who did right, and not who pushes symbols with great complexity to achieve a goal, it's either the relevance or the definition that breaks down. Who cares who's smart? Do good and do right; that's much more rare and valuable. How about being brilliant at loving a person instead of an equation or a machine?

 

[Levitat0r]

He never regretted making the bomb if I asked my dad who had very personal experiences with evil ideologues I Could see their perspective.

He did indeed wrestle with the consequences of his research. Where he wound up in terms of having done things differently given the chance, I don't know.

 

[RemyZee]

I broke the IQ system my scores are too far apart so yes I agree it's not IQ. There are things I am considered gifted at in fact i score in the top 2 percent but other things I score in the bottom 11 percent. I have come to think that there is not genius is an overarching sense. I can memorize all sorts of things and I can speak with a fluency few possess when explaining big ideas but I can't order food at a restaurant by myself. Am I a genius?? I guess I believe it's more of a topic based thing not so much a word you can use in a generalized sense

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I watched a video once on chaotic systems. as an example, the presenter showed a pendulum. very predictable then he placed a second pendulum on the first one, that was neat, that how life works. I really like this analogy even used it once to fix an ink formula. treated each pigment as a pendulum and a second pigment as a second pendulum. chucked the ink reformulated and it worked.

 

[Levitat0r]

I watched a video once on chaotic systems. as an example, the presenter showed a pendulum. very predictable then he placed a second pendulum on the first one, that was neat, that how life works. I really like this analogy even used it once to fix an ink formula. treated each pigment as a pendulum and a second pigment as a second pendulum. chucked the ink reformulated and it worked.

Yes, and the immediate tendency is for a simple, well-ordered system to immediately succumb to chaos with the addition of trivial complexity; sometimes referred to as the butterfly effect. That is one many snapshots of the same humbling scene; you don't have to dig very far to discover you are not God, and you would not want to be the one in charge. It's fine to be smart, but it's better to define oneself in terms of good character, not "genius" or any other talent.

 

[Crossbreed]

...so bright he makes his peers fear his intellect.

In some circles, that is called "scary smart..."

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

So soft spoken yet so bright and so scary, makes even the guys with 190 IQ's look stupid.

 

[Outdated]

Genius, as far as I can tell, relates to intelligence. There are many different types of intelligence and as far as I can tell being a savant does not really involve a great deal of intellect.

I was always quick at maths, in school I never understood why others found it so hard, I mean, it's not like something you have to actually think about. You read an equation, your brain supplies an answer and you write the answer down. Not real hard. To me it was just a function that my brain did by itself, it was never anything I had to think about.

My sister was hopeless at her schoolwork, especially with maths, but she was always far smarter than I could ever hope to be.

The true measure of intellect is how quickly people learn from mistakes. The truly intelligent learn from seeing other people make mistakes and avoid the same fates for themselves. To me a mark of genius is someone who never makes the same mistake twice.

Einstein once described insanity as "repeating the same process again and again hoping to achieve a different result".

 

[Au Naturel]

Genius is as genius does. You may be brilliant but if you don't do something with it, it is meaningless. A genius is defined by their ingenious ideas.

 

[Levitat0r]

Genius, as far as I can tell, relates to intelligence. There are many different types of intelligence and as far as I can tell being a savant does not really involve a great deal of intellect.

I was always quick at maths, in school I never understood why others found it so hard, I mean, it's not like something you have to actually think about. You read an equation, your brain supplies an answer and you write the answer down. Not real hard. To me it was just a function that my brain did by itself, it was never anything I had to think about.

My sister was hopeless at her schoolwork, especially with maths, but she was always far smarter than I could ever hope to be.

The true measure of intellect is how quickly people learn from mistakes. The truly intelligent learn from seeing other people make mistakes and avoid the same fates for themselves. To me a mark of genius is someone who never makes the same mistake twice.

Einstein once described insanity as "repeating the same process again and again hoping to achieve a different result".

This commentary pretty much directly reinforces what I've been saying; that it's a matter of perspective and your smart is different from pretty much everyone else's. Never repeating the same mistake twice means you need something like an eidetic memory so that you never forget any lessons ever. Is that what smart is, like a computer hard drive? If it came to you naturally and it was easy, then it's not smart? Then what is smart? Doing lots of easy things until they compose a hard one? Everyone is like that, just in different ways. Again, I leave you with the conclusion it's better to be of good character than to be talented.

 

[Outdated]

This commentary pretty much directly reinforces what I've been saying; that it's a matter of perspective and your smart is different from pretty much everyone else's.

My sister was people smart. She understood people in ways that I never could. She was also pretty quick with the maths but she could only do it in her head, as soon as she tried to write it down her brain locked up and she couldn't think. She also could never read a map, she claimed she could if you turned it up the right way for her but as soon as you turned a corner she was lost again. Some sort of *spasia. Our whole family was weird, my sister and I were the only 2 not living in denial. Lou was incredibly artistic and a promising oil painter before she had kids, anything she ever touched always looked good.

 

[Levitat0r]

My sister was people smart. She understood people in ways that I never could. She was also pretty quick with the maths but she could only do it in her head, as soon as she tried to write it down her brain locked up and she couldn't think. She also could never read a map, she claimed she could if you turned it up the right way for her but as soon as you turned a corner she was lost again. Some sort of *spasia. Our whole family was weird, my sister and I were the only 2 not living in denial. Lou was incredibly artistic and a promising oil painter before she had kids, anything she ever touched always looked good.

We're supposed to enjoy being diverse this way, but instead we stare at each other like we have three heads and treat each other like garbage; it's the human way.

 

[Mary Terry]

Mozart once said, "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

 

[Greening]

When Alfred Binet invented the IQ-test, he pointed out that it cannot measure intelligence. It was a tool to measure where a pupil was in terms of learning specific topics like mathematics. Nothing else. It is a shame that ideas like that get blown out of proportion, not unlike some scientists who forget to be humble about what science can, and, especially, cannot say anything about. When it comes to the term genius, I don't think anyone IS a genius, but sometimes someone can come up with a genius idea, because imagination and circumstances are open in a specific way for just that.

 

[Levitat0r]

Mozart once said, "Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

I have a theory of my own that I developed; that Socrates was basically like a backup version of the Christian story that God created to connect to atheists, secular types, and rationalists, and logicians. Socrates' greatest question was; what is it that unites all of the virtues, and what do they have in common? He said that he was the "midwife to the truth", and then he was basically crucified. Then, Jesus came along, he said that he is "the truth", and right before he was crucified, he said that all of the law is held in one commandment, which is love. So, you, Mozart, and Jesus Christ all answered Socrates' greatest question; the virtues all have love in common. How can you not love a thing which is inherently good, or which is the definition of good? That's what virtues are, so you would love them.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I am working on a thread on what AB blood type means collaborating with a fourth cousin we are related multiple ways really interesting puzzle, right down my alley for how my mind works. She keeps telling me I must be a genius because so many dots connect stunning her. I told her most people we agree are genius have extraordinary intelligence. I have a modest 130 IQ, not bad moderately gifted so I compromised junior genius obviously getting help from some outside entity.

 

[Outdated]

She keeps telling me I must be a genius because so many dots connect stunning her.

Tim Minchin: "A genius is just a mentally ill person with an audience."

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I hope I'm not mentally little to late in game to find out now.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

The only genius in my family was my older brother, who passed a few years ago did some top secret for the Canadian military 50 years ago they like testing IQ he had the highest they measured, let my dad know who in turn passed it to me.