Genius and Creativity: Exploring Unknown Discoveries

[Knowledger]

Hello there

I've been thinking about geniuses lately, I think that a genius has limits and there is no one in the world that knew something without any indicator that leaded him to know or discover this unkown thing, I mean I don't believe that a genius could know something without something that indicates to him the undiscovered thing unless this genius is a genie, what do you think are the factors behind discovery of unkown things and innovation?

Thanks

 

[-Job-]

Hard work, chance.

 

[sneez]

Extreemly hard work. (chance in the sense of right cicrumstances present in the day and age of the genius)

(Note: Genius is in love with what he/she does -> hard work -> smart).

Hard work without obsession/love/drive is not going to do.

 

[JierenChen]

I think you're mixing two different things up here. A genius is not necessarily an innovator. Geniuses merely have an innate supernormal cognitive ability. Innovators have the ideas.

And you're right: ideas don't form out of vacuum and they certainly aren't innate.

 

[verty]

Geniuses (like Einstein) can look at common things in new ways. A genius (like Quine) can make complicated things seem simple. I don't think it's about finding the unknown but rather about taking various knowns and integrating them into a new whole.

 

[waht]

Geniuses and inventors mixed up all knowledge they have learned to produce something new. Most things they mix is immediately rejected but somewhere down the line something new emerges from that mixer.

Geniuses just have a greater ability to combine different ideas they have previously learned, they do it in a blink of an eye.

 

[Ki Man]

Genius is in the eye of the beholder, and lies in the realm of undefined thoughts, like love and zero

 

[Hurkyl]

lies in the realm of undefined thoughts, like ... zero

Huh?

 

[rigon]

Creativity and Intelegence are similar but also diferent.Geneus is not only Intelegece but the last level of craetivity.The man that has high intelegence doesn't mean that he is creative, but the very creative person has also high IQ.So the genius is person with the highesat creativity,an ability to combine the knowledge and to make something extraordinary.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Creativity and Intelegence are similar but also diferent.Geneus is not only Intelegece but the last level of craetivity.The man that has high intelegence doesn't mean that he is creative, but the very creative person has also high IQ.So the genius is person with the highesat creativity,an ability to combine the knowledge and to make something extraordinary.

I agree with the first part of your statement but not the second. I don't think it's automatic that a very creative person will have high IQ. I can think of a number of people I regard as highly creative - artists and others - who have only average IQs and don't need any special smarts to do their beautifully creative things. I do agree that to be creative in math or physics you have to be able to DO math or physics, and that presupposes a certain minimum IQ level.

 

[Hell_SD]

Hello there

what do you think are the factors behind discovery of unknown things and innovation?

Thanks

not limiting ones imagination
not being afraid to be wrong
not caring what others think about what you think
a trust in instinct and intuition which might fly in the face logic and reason
a strong sense of self belief

 

[Ki Man]

Huh?

lol

what i mean is, its undefined. we cannot say what genius is, because it does not exist. genius to you is rubbish to someone else. there's no such thing as genius. it is what you make of it

 

[jammieg]

many simple processes

I think it's a combination of simple processes that one does so often they do them without thinking about them, the difference between what we are told is some great genius and someone who thinks a lot is mostly chance.

Like paying attention to oddities and incongruities, mysteries and asking questions about them. Like using logic to deduct truth and inductive logic to stimulate new original perspectives or possibilities, and using math to prove discoveries...all these little things of course most people just don't do, they got better things to use their minds with, but the key is these things aren't built on someone going out and trying to solve world hunger, they are built up on using them in everday life for immediate practical benefit which leads to a love for them which leads to using them more and more, which when you take away all the hype and fame and money around grand discoveries or products of great creativity you are left with essentially the same thing as the everday life stuff- puzzles, only the grand stuff is a bit more unlikely for someone like this to happen on.

 

[Chaos' lil bro Order]

I think there are two types of genius, Creative and Logical. The greatest geniuses, the Supergeniuses, can merge the two in moments of clarity.

THE CREATIVE GENIUS
I posit that Creative geniuses do most of their thinking in their unconscious. While Logical geniuses do most of their thinking in their conscious. To make a crude example, consider an alphabet soup with 50 letters. The unconscious mind does not see these as letters, does not see an order to these letters, does not even recognize shape in these letters. It see 50 objects and 100 spaces. It arranges these 50 objects in these 100 spaces at random, with no semblance of logic or rationalle attached. 9/10 times the unconscious spells complete gibrish. 1/10 times the unconscious spells 'eureka' surrounded by 44 random letters. The problem is the unconscious, even having spelled 'eureka', cannot recognize this word because it does not even know what letters are. The Supergenius has the ability to consciously see and read this 'eurkea' and can thus bring it into the public domain of language. The creative genius only realizes the beauty in the arrangement of these 50 letters, but is unaware of its logical significance.

THE LOGICAL GENIUS
Again, we think of an alphabet soup with 50 letters and 100 spaces. The logical genius lives largely in his/her own conscious. He sees letters and he sees words. He only assembles the letters into words of semblance. He is cumbersome in his task and he is limited to his predefined vocabulary of words. He may eventually spell 'eureka', but it takes him much time and effort to tediously swap letters in and out of allowable positions. His Creative genius friend simply gives the soup a swirl and let's the letters coalesce as they may. The logical genius cannot afford such a luxury and it takes him much longer to complete an entire swirl.

THE SUPERGENIUS
I believe the supergenius is unique. I speculate that his neural pathways have extra links between his unconscious domain and conscious domain. He can swirl the letters quickly and at the same time, each swirl produces a series of cogent, tangible words. His unconscious swirls at such a fast rate and his conscious mind samples 'eurekas' so adeptly from the soup that he is litterally bombarded with revelations at most instants of the day.

If you have ever had a breakthrough in your area of discipline, or have noticed that you randomly had an insight into an area you weren't even thinking about, I think you have experienced a glimpse into this world.

Its interesting to note that Einstein said that many of his major breakthroughs came to him in dream. He frequently would pour over complex math papers for hours on end, then he would drift into a mid-day nap, whereupon he'd wake up suddenly with a 'eureka' type answer to his nagging question. He even stated that this works best in daytime when your sleep is very light. When you are barely unconscious and your conscious mind is free to mingle with your unconscious' free associations.
This is sort of the reverse of pschizofrenics (spelled wrongly I'm sure, lol). They are victimized by their unconscious dipping into their conscious, while awake. Supergeniuses have the ability to dip their conscious into their unconscious and they can even take a teaspoon of it back into the world of the public domain of language, so that you and I can equally taste its sweetness.

This is my opinion, but I think its a pretty good one.