Genius. The word beguiles, but do I really know what it means? It comes to us from the Latin genius, but it meant something very different in Roman times. Back then, a genius was a presiding deity that followed you everywhere, much like a helicopter parent only with supernatural powers. (The word genie stems from the same root.) Every person had a genius. Every place, too. Cities, towns, and marketplaces, all possessed their own presiding spirit, a genius loci, that continuously animated them. The current dictionary definition\u2014\u201cextraordinary intellectual power esp. as manifested in creative activity\u201d\u2014is a product of the eighteenth-century Romantics, those brooding poets who suffered, suffered for their art and, we\u2019d now say, for their creativity, a word that is even more recent; it didn\u2019t come along until 1870 and wasn\u2019t in widespread use until the 1950s.<\/p>\n
Some use genius to describe a very smart person\u2014someone with a high IQ\u2014 but that is overly narrow, and misleading. Plenty of people with extremely high IQs have accomplished little, and conversely, plenty of people of \u201caverage\u201d intelligence have done great things. No, I am speaking of genius in the creative sense\u2014as the highest form of creativity.<\/p>\n
My favorite definition of creative genius comes from researcher and artificial- intelligence expert Margaret Boden. The creative genius, she says, is someone with \u201cthe ability to come up with ideas that are new, surprising, and valuable.\u201d Those also are the criteria the US Patent Office uses when deciding whether an invention deserves a patent.<\/p>\n
Francis Galton was one of the first meteorologists. He coined the phrase nature versus nurture. He had an IQ of nearly 200.<\/p>\n
Galton\u2019s motto was \u201cCount whenever you can!\u201d To him, anything worth doing was worth doing numerically, and he once confessed that he couldn\u2019t fully grasp a problem unless he was first able to \u201cdisembarrass it of words.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world did not pay much attention to Galton\u2019s beauty map, but it did take notice of\u00a0his\u00a0landmark\u00a0book,\u00a0Hereditary\u00a0Genius.\u00a0Published\u00a0in\u00a01869,\u00a0it\u00a0delved\u00a0deep\u00a0into\u00a0the\u00a0family\u00a0pedigrees of eminent creators, leaders, and athletes. Galton believed that these people\u00a0owed their success to genetics, or what he called \u201cnatural abilities.\u201d For Galton, genetics\u00a0explained everything. It explained why one family might contain several eminent members\u00a0and another none. It explained why societies with many immigrants and refugees were\u00a0often successful, since these newcomers \u201cintroduced a valuable strain of blood.\u201d It explained why some nations succeeded more than others (elucidated in a chapter with the\u00a0unfortunate title \u201cThe Comparative Worth of Races\u201d). It explained the decline of once-great\u00a0civilizations\u2014the ancient Greeks, for instance, had begun to intermarry with \u201clesser\u201d peoples, thus diluting their bloodline. In the end, it explained why every one of his geniuses\u00a0was a white man, like him, living on a small, gloomy island off the coast of continental Eu-\u00a0rope. As for women, Galton only mentions them once, in a chapter called \u201cLiterary Men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Galton\u2019s book was well received, and no wonder. It articulated, in scientific language,\u00a0what people had suspected for a long time: geniuses are born, not made.<\/p>\n
His notion of hereditary genius, though, was dead wrong. Genius is not passed\u00a0down like blue eyes or baldness. There is no genius gene; one genius has yet to\u00a0beget another. Civilizations do not rise and fall because of shifting gene pools. Yes,\u00a0when it comes to creative genius, genes are part of the mix, but a relatively small\u00a0part, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent, psychologists estimate.<\/p>\n
The geniuses-are-born myth has been supplanted by another myth: geniuses are\u00a0made. On the face of it, this seems true. It takes hard work, at least ten thousand\u00a0hours of practice, over ten years, to begin to approach mastery, let alone genius, as\u00a0one well-known study found. Modern psychology has, in other words, unearthed\u00a0empirical evidence for Edison\u2019s old saw about success being 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.<\/p>\n
This component, sweat, adds another piece to the picture, an important piece.\u00a0The picture, though, remains incomplete. Something is missing. But what?<\/p>\n
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The Geography of Genius<\/strong><\/em> Genius. The word beguiles, but do I really know what it means? It comes to us from the Latin genius, but it meant something very different in Roman times. Back then, a genius was a presiding deity that followed you everywhere, much like a helicopter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=900%2C609&ssl=1","rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=900%2C609&ssl=1",900,609,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg",900,609,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg",900,609,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=300%2C203&ssl=1",300,203,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=900%2C609&ssl=1",900,609,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=900%2C609&ssl=1",900,609,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=900%2C609&ssl=1",900,609,true],"portfolio-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=570%2C570&ssl=1",570,570,true],"portfolio-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=600%2C609&ssl=1",600,609,true],"portfolio-landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1",800,600,true],"menu-featured-post":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=345%2C198&ssl=1",345,198,true],"qode-carousel_slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=400%2C260&ssl=1",400,260,true],"portfolio_slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=500%2C380&ssl=1",500,380,true],"portfolio_masonry_regular":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=500%2C500&ssl=1",500,500,true],"portfolio_masonry_wide":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=900%2C500&ssl=1",900,500,true],"portfolio_masonry_tall":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=500%2C609&ssl=1",500,609,true],"portfolio_masonry_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=900%2C609&ssl=1",900,609,true],"portfolio_masonry_with_space":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=700%2C474&ssl=1",700,474,true],"latest_post_boxes":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=539%2C303&ssl=1",539,303,true],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?fit=600%2C406&ssl=1",600,406,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/post-1509.jpg?resize=100%2C100&ssl=1",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Philosophy<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Genius. The word beguiles, but do I really know what it means? It comes to us from the Latin genius, but it meant something very different in Roman times. Back then, a genius was a presiding deity that followed you everywhere, much like a helicopter...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31874,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31873\/revisions\/31874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lecturesbureau.gr\/1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEric Weiner<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"