Do You Have What It Takes to be a Genius?

[stoorssarg]

ARE you a genius*** :- )

What do you think gives a person special mental abilities? (IQ of 149+) Is it all genetics or just your environment, or a combination of the two? Do you think the IQ test really measures your mental ability? Or is there other factors that the IQ test doesn't take into consideration such as creativity and so on. OR maybe genius is just a state of mind that we all can achieve.

 

[Werg22]

Genius is the ability to elude innate human stupidity, at least in my opinion.

 

[turbo]

Genius is the ability to elude innate human stupidity, at least in my opinion.

Good analogy. Creativity and imagination can trump craftsmanship and the "grind" of the trails fostered by a lack of epistemology.

 

[Kummer]

ARE you a genius*** :- )

I like to think that. I have an outsanding memory. Learn advanced mathematics on my own. I can pass my exams in 1/3 the given time.

 

[ranger]

IQ tests are inaccurate.
I like Werg22's definition of genius. And last time I checked, finishing [and passing] an exam in less than half the time is not grounds for being a genius.

 

[ice109]

I like to think that. I have an outsanding memory. Learn advanced mathematics on my own. I can pass my exams in 1/3 the given time.

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

 

[Werg22]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

I don't know about this. Some true geniuses are very well conscious that they are geniuses.

 

[Kummer]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

History has it that Gauss was a little of a show off. He was proud to have been the greatest mathematician of his time. I am well sure that he knew he was the genius par excellence.

Same thing with Galois.

---
Just because a quotation sounds nice does not mean it is correct (adapted from Voltaire).

 

[waht]

But Galois died at 20 in a duel fight because he probably was too confident.

 

[cristo]

Being a show off does not mean that you think you're a genius, it just means you're arrogant. However, there's nothing wrong with a bit of arrogance in my opinion.

 

[tacosareveryyum]

Who cares if you are a genius or not if you do not use your talents for the betterment of mankind.
Being smart doesn't really differentiate you from anyone else. In my personal experience, achievement isn't obtained from being smarter than everyone else. It is obtained through determination and perseverance.
Genius is a state of mind we can all achieve.

 

[moose]

It almost takes one to know one. How often have you heard someone say "so and so is a genius", about someone who is simply educated or slightly smarter than average? It happens quite often.

 

[end3r7]

Well... I can draw a perfect circle with just a pencil, if that counts for anything. =P

 

[ice109]

Being a show off does not mean that you think you're a genius, it just means you're arrogant. However, there's nothing wrong with a bit of arrogance in my opinion.

there are many things wrong with being arrogant, not the least of which is that there will always be someone who you should be humbled by.

 

[Chi Meson]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

Perhaps more aptly: "...telling others that you're a genius."

If you have genius, it will show. If you have to tell other people that you are a genius, then it's not showing.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Well... I can draw a perfect circle with just a pencil, if that counts for anything. =P

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

 

[wolram]

Geniuses eat cold food and wear slip on shoes

 

[moose]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

 

[fourier jr]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

lmao that's hilarious. i can't believe people take that seriously.

 

[DeadWolfe]

I wonder how the judge this freehand circle competition.

 

[ice109]

Perhaps more aptly: "...telling others that you're a genius."

If you have genius, it will show. If you have to tell other people that you are a genius, then it's not showing.

i just kind of assume that if you're smart, you know to be humble.

 

[BillJx]

Some people define gifted children by IQ scores alone, but define gifted adults by the combination of IQ and actual achievement. Seems reasonable to me.

My IQ scores are fairly high, especially verbal reasoning, but a lot of my co-workers are smarter at troubleshooting. I guess a high IQ score must mean you're good at something, but I'm not sure it's proof of intelligence except in a narrow sense.

 

[Danger]

Someone in PF (I think that it was Evo or Moonbear) once pointed out the truth about IQ tests. The only thing that they prove is how good you are at taking IQ tests.

 

[mathwonk]

I suspect genius has little to do with IQ. Galois apparently failed admissions exams to top unis so would likely have received low IQ scores, yet was clearly a genius.

IQ means agreeing with accepted norms of intelligence, genius seems to be the opposite.so all us fruitcakes can claim genius!Lots of people have IQ over 149, probably many on this forum, but are not even that smart, much less geniuses. i think mine was at least 85, last i checked, (but i cheated a little).

 

[stoorssarg]

I wonder how the judge this freehand circle competition.

they use geometry to figure out who drew the most precise circle

 

[turbo]

Some people define gifted children by IQ scores alone, but define gifted adults by the combination of IQ and actual achievement. Seems reasonable to me.

My IQ scores are fairly high, especially verbal reasoning, but a lot of my co-workers are smarter at troubleshooting. I guess a high IQ score must mean you're good at something, but I'm not sure it's proof of intelligence except in a narrow sense.

My IQ scores have been very high since childhood, and I have been compulsively drawn to the "why" and "how" of everything from a young age. As a young adult as the lead operator on the start-up of the most technologically advanced paper machine of the early 1980s (read: most oversold, most prone to failure, most speculative joint venture to that date), I puzzled out some of the most vexing problems that the engineers of our company and the engineers of the manufacturer's company (our partner) could not solve. As a result, I later worked with that paper machine manufacturer's senior troubleshooter as a technical consultant. He was 30 years my senior, neither of us had a degree, and on our first troubleshooting project together, he had me make the presentation to management/production/engineering staff since I was the one who had deduced their primary problem.

Most wet-streak problems on a paper machine arise at the wet end (where the pulp/water/additive slurry is shot onto a moving mesh wire by the headbox) and I think that he handed me that section of the machine because he knew my strengths and wanted me to score an early victory with a skittish client. Some of the senior staff at the mill tried to poo-poo my explanation of the poor practices that caused their problem (wet steaks/ poor drying/sheet breaks) until my mentor had enough and raised his hand and said "Do what he said and your problem is solved - don't and you'll lose production every day". It was a matter that involved slacking off the tension of a cable-raised breast roll mechanism after every wire change. Total cost - 5 seconds of time after the breast roll arm was raised. Total payback - the recovery of tens of thousands of dollars (at a bare minimum - more like hundreds of thousands some days) of lost production per day. The technical service we provided was free. We worked for a company that sold industrial textiles to paper mills and we solved their problems with the honest expectation that if we could help them make them a bunch of money, they would buy our textiles instead of those made by our competitors. It worked.

Genius? No. Getting the job done? The proof is in the customer loyalty and continued business. BTW, Omega (his real name) had a mentor, too. An 80+ year old gentleman who sat on the gang boxes (rolling tool cribs) and watched us try to get that paper machine running back in the '80s. Every once in a while, that old fellow would beckon me over during some trying times and give me a hint or two. That time was never wasted. Automation is a way to get things done with fewer people or with less human interaction. Sometimes the real genius is a person able to cut to the quick and pull off a fundamental improvement with little or no effort - just insight.

 

[wildman]

Am I a genius? No, not even close. But I have had the good fortune to work for one in a major discovery (being defined as something that others had spent millions of dollars and years of effort to try to do unsuccessfully). It was thrilling beyond words even though I was strickly grunt labor and my name didn't appear on the paper (rightly so). He was very aware he was brilliant beyond any of us. Not arrogantly, it was just the way it was like the sky being blue or grass green.

 

[Smurf]

Y I am.

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

Damn

 

[daveb]

I have been called genius far too numerous times to count. Usually when I did something totally boneheaded.

 

[cristo]

I have been called genius far too numerous times to count. Usually when I did something totally boneheaded.

You mean like http://www.theonion.com/content/video/report_70_percent_of_all_praise?

 

[daveb]

Ooo! Great work Einstein! Finding that link! (Slow applause)
(The news report about the live Hungry Hungry Hippo was hilarious!)

 

[end3r7]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

Damn! Well, guess my circles are not that perfect...

 

[Gib Z]

I wish i was a genius :( Definitely am not though. Something I've realized over the past few months is that I'm not "good" at math like i thought i was. Terry Tao is Good at math, I'm just interested in it, somewhat well read and practiced in it. Any standard tests and exercises in textbooks I can do, but when it comes to an insight problem, like something in an Olympiad, I fall to my knees..~sigh~

 

[Werg22]

To the OP, after a quick research, it seems that the IQ demarcation for genius is 140+, not 149+.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Even though my IQ score will not support me on this, I have always considered myself to be a genius. I base this on the fact that I use a lot of big words that I don't necessarily understand. However, to be objective, I asked my family to decide this issue. My wife said that the only genius thing I ever did in my life was to marry her. My mother said that I was indeed a genius and that I had the cutest knees when I was a baby. My 15 year old daughter just rolled her eyes and said "as if". My 13 year old son said that if genius is 90% persperation, then I'm an idiot. Looks like the nays have it.

 

[fourier jr]

Even though my IQ score will not support me on this, I have always considered myself to be a genius. I base this on the fact that I use a lot of big words that I don't necessarily understand.

i think the word for that is "blowhard", not genius

 

[ice109]

I wish i was a genius :( Definitely am not though. Something I've realized over the past few months is that I'm not "good" at math like i thought i was. Terry Tao is Good at math, I'm just interested in it, somewhat well read and practiced in it. Any standard tests and exercises in textbooks I can do, but when it comes to an insight problem, like something in an Olympiad, I fall to my knees..~sigh~

yea terry tao is a genius

on someone's blog around here i read about the gifted test he took when he was eight and how he was studying linear algebra at the time and all that stuff.

i think the word for that is "blowhard", not genius

im pretty sure he was joking

 

[fourier jr]

yea terry tao is a genius

what is it with people on this forum & terence tao? i would think ANY fields medalist would have a little something that most other people don't. or to look at it another way, maybe they DON'T have something that everyone else does have.

 

[ice109]

what is it with people on this forum & terence tao? i would think ANY fields medalist would have a little something that most other people don't. or to look at it another way, maybe they DON'T have something that everyone else does have.

what i didn't say terence tao was god, i just said he's a genius?

 

[mathwonk]

i think riemann was a genius, i can't think of any other clear cases. maybe archimedes.

 

[stoorssarg]

I've came to conclude that after reading all of your posts. That genius isn't how good your math skills are. Or of you can get an A+ on your physics test. (Sure all those things help)

But if your able to question the world around you; and ponder new idea and willing to test those idea in real life. Thats what I think makes a genius.

 

[fourier jr]

fwiw here's what georg lichtenberg thought:
"I have very often reflected on what it is that really distinguishes the great genius from the common crowd. Here are some observations I have made. The common individual always conforms to the prevailing opinion and the prevailing fashion; he regards the state in which everything now exists as the only possible one and passively accepts it all. It does not occur to him that everything from the shape of the furniture up to the subtlest hypothesis, is decided by the great council of mankind of which he is a member. He wears thin-soled shoes even though the sharp stones of the street hurt his feet, he allows fashion to dictate to him that the buckles of his shoes must extend as far as his toes even though that means the shoe is often hard to get on. He does not reflect that the form of the shoe as much upon him as it does upon the fool who first wore thin shoes on cracked pavement. To the great genius it always occurs to ask: Could this too not be false? He never first gives his vote without first reflecting..."

or baltasar gracian:
"Have original and out-of-the-way views. These are the signs of superior ability. We do not think much of someone who never contradicts us; that is not a sign that he loves us but that he loves himself. Do not be deceived by flattery and thereby have to pay for it, rather condemn it. Besides, you may be given credit for being criticized by some, especially if they are those of whom the good speak ill. On the contrary, it should disturb us if our affairs please everyone, for that is a sign that they are of little worth. Perfection is for the few."

or jacques hadamard:
"To invent is to choose. This very remarkable conclusion appears the more striking if we compare it with what Paul Valery writes in the Nouvelle Revue Francaise: "It takes two to invent anything. The one makes up combinations; the other chooses, recognizes what he wishes and what is important to him in the mass of things which the former has imparted to him. What we call genius is much less the work of the first one than the readiness of the second one to grasp the value of what has been laid before him and to choose it.""

or baltasar gracian again re: hadamard thing
"Know how to choose well. Most of life depends on this. You need good taste and sound judgement, for which neither intellect nor study suffices. To be choice, you must choose well, and for this two things are needed: to be able to choose at all, and then to choose best. There are many people with fertile and subtle minds, of keen judgement, of much learning, and great observation who still are at a loss when it comes to choosing. They always take the worst as if they were determined to go wrong. Thus, knowing how to choose well is one of the greatest gifts."

 

[Gib Z]

Newton would deny this and say all his work was from pure effort, but I swear he's a genius as well.

 

[daveb]

Why are we limiting our discussion of who is a genius to scientists? Surely Van Gogh, Mozart, and a host of other artists, musicians, writers (I personally believe Jonathan Swift was a genius), and even entertainers (perhaps Frank Zappa and Henry Rollins). As fourier_jr pointed out, perhaps a genius is someone who questions that which is established. Then again, I've been called a genius (in the non-pejorative sense) by people when I tell them I have a degree in math and physics and am getting a graduate nuclear engineering degree (by no means do I consider myself a genius, however). With all this in mind, I would probably say a genius is relative. One individual may see person A as a genius but not person B while another individual sees the opposite. I think it may have something to with a perception that the so called genius achieves a level of expertise in some endeavor that very few others could also achieve.

 

[K.J.Healey]

Seems that being a Genius is purely subjective, right? How often is it that two people consider each other geniuses when one is smarter (in common ways) than the other? Seems most call people geniuses when they merely grasp things significantly quicker than themselves. When I was a child a "nuclear scientist" or "rocket scientist" must be a genius because the material they worked on was so beyond me. Now it isn't and I hold a firm belief that most people could, if they desired, learn science and physics to a depth of my own.

In my humblest of opinions, I would name someone a genius who is able to see things and understand them as no(rarely) person has prior, and then have the creativity to MOVE. To go forward with that understanding and create the unexpected. To apply their understanding.

 

[ice109]

how bout we all just admit that genius is a pretty meaningless word

 

[end3r7]

Indeed. And some of its meaninglessness come from its overuse...

 

[mathwonk]

my friend alan mayer said he thought michael spivak was a genius.

 

[mheslep]

Even though my IQ score will not support me on this, I have always considered myself to be a genius. I base this on the fact that I use a lot of big words that I don't necessarily understand. However, to be objective, I asked my family to decide this issue. My wife said that the only genius thing I ever did in my life was to marry her. My mother said that I was indeed a genius and that I had the cutest knees when I was a baby. My 15 year old daughter just rolled her eyes and said "as if". My 13 year old son said that if genius is 90% persperation, then I'm an idiot. Looks like the nays have it.

Since all demand to know what I think, this is by far my favorite post in thread. Well alright my mother likes to know what I think. Sometimes.

 

[mheslep]

I like to role this one out when this topic surfaces:

Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.

Alexander Hamilton