Genius, Genii, and the History of How the West was Thought Up

[cupidsbow]

Today, in between marking and picking away at missing scenes, I have been reading journal articles on genius. The topic turns out to be a much more fascinating -- and even more fraught -- than I had realised

Comments

[sciwitch]

Thanks for such a fascinating overview. I did some research into the topic years ago in college, right after I got into Mensa. All the conflicting information can make your brain hurt.

I'm heading off to a Mensa gathering this weekend, and I keep imagining what it would be like to bump into Rodney there.... "yeah, yeah, you're a genius... so's everybody else in the room.... pass me a bagel."

[cupidsbow]

You're welcome; I'm glad you found it interesting. I know what you mean about the conflicting information, but that ended up being one of the things I vibed on -- it really brought home how little is known collectively about intellect, and how much of it we invent.

Also: hahaha! I may have had a sudden picture of John accidentally touching an Ancient IQ measurer in the middle of a lab full of curious scientist, and it zipping all the way to "Genius" before he could turn it off. :)

[vee_fic]

Intelligence -- and, especially among geeks, the ambiguous valuation of intelligence -- is one of those topics that seems new, seems fraught in our modern, internetty, everyone-must-go-to-college ways, but that, when you look at it, that fraughtness is as old as the hills, or at least the Enlightenment.

I had a conversation back in high school, that I didn't really comprehend at the time, about the phrase "all men are created equal." Equal in resources? Obviously not. Equal in rights? No, though we've been moving slowly in that direction. Equal in abilities, capacities, skills? No, or there would be no such thing as the SAT. It was kind of a revelation, in my little highschooly way, into the fact that a lot of thundrous rhetoric is effective because it states a wish as a fact, and allows people to believe that the wish is not only true, but has always been true, and is the natural state of being.

[cupidsbow]

I know what you mean about those moments in which the world suddenly seems like a whole different place -- I had a similar epiphany, when I realised, oh wow, we construct most of the world collectively and there is very little actual "truth"!

The collectivised idea of genius certainly seems to belong in that category.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

[anatsuno]

'tis awesome! and fascinating, thank you.
I think you might enjoy the related tangent M.Gladwell explores in this video talk about the relative merits of genius and expertise. I found it very interesting.

What you point out re: genius and originality is of great interest to me, because year after year I realize I have engaged into a battle against the notions of originality and authenticity that we laud so much in a thousand little unthinking and sometimes toxic ways. So, just-- yes. Thank you.

[cupidsbow]

Thank you for the link -- that looks fascinating. I'll listen to it during my next break in the dreaded marking marathon.

Re: originality. So much yes! It's something I've become very aware of thanks to fanfic; I'm constantly amazed now at how people seriously seem to believe that they can create something "original". It's just such a nonsense in the majority of cases, but such a pervasive meme.

[cupidsbow]

That was an awesome video. Thank you so much.

[anatsuno]

You're welcome! Yours was an awesome post. :D

Genius, Genii, and the History of How the West was Thought Up

[maxinemayer]

Fascinating! I haven't a prayer in hell of understanding much of what you've said here, let alone your source materials, but I enjoyed trying to break my 140 I.Q. brain over it! (I'm not being sarcastic - I mean this!)

Recently I thought with a degree of sadness about the fact that my intelligence was just that bit too low to understand and appreciate and love mathematics and physics. I would so wish to be able to grasp such things but it is not to be. On the other hand, literature and poetry is more fluid so I can reach an understanding of many depths of the written word without truly suffering about the things I don't understand.

Anyway, thanks for posting something so absorbing to read. I appreciate that!
Love, max

Re: Genius, Genii, and the History of How the West was Thought Up

[cupidsbow]

I don't think it's your IQ that's the problem, I think it's the specialised nature of the topic. After all, this kind of theory is what I've spent most of my tertiary education learning how to read and engage with. I'm pretty good at it now

Re: Genius, Genii, and the History of How the West was Thought Up

[maxinemayer]

I agree with you in part: of course, training and practice are important in how well we can do certain things! But to me, there's no question that "natural aptitude" plays more than "a big part" - without "natural aptitude" no amount of training and practice will do the trick

Re: Genius, Genii, and the History of How the West was Thought Up

[cupidsbow]

*holds up hands* I'm not going to argue with you about your own capabilities, which you clearly know much better than I do. :)

The reason I made that offhand comment of "10 years" of study is because that's how long it's taken me to really master my craft. It also seems to be supported by this interesting talk on genius versus expertise (which the lovely anatsuno linked me to above. So while I'm ready to believe that you would not gain much benefit from ten years spent in pursuit of physics and maths, I think my contention holds to some degree. If, for instance, I spent ten years that way, I think I'd come out the other end competent (but no genius) in them, given that my natural talent doesn't lie that way, but I'm not actually intrinsically bad at them

[amothea]

I loved your essay.

[cupidsbow]

Thank you!