"All truths are easy to understand once they
are discovered. The point is to discover them."
Galileo Galilei
"You are a genius!" I said to an obliging shop assistant. The word is used liberally in everyday life, for example by fans in admiration of their favourite pop star or a so-called celebrity.
In truth, it is perfectly possible that a shop assistant, or anyone,
can be a genius, without this necessarily manifesting itself to others
in their daily job. Geniuses can be found doing menial work
in any walk of life. In this article, we often use Einstein
as an example, and he once worked as an office junior. If my shop assistant
were a true genius, she could be the only one who knew, and she would
not need anyone to tell her, for it is impossible for a genius not to
know, certainly not in adult life, self-doubts discounted.
Does this mean that anyone who thinks of themselves so, must be a true genius? And what is genius in the first place? Are the answers purely a matter of opinion or point of view?
In the course of this article, we do reach conclusions which aim to be universal but, clearly, the issues are complex, further complicated by popular misconceptions or even personal definitions, either conscious or subconscious.
Someone with genius may choose not to manifest such exceptional ability at all, but to live an ordinary existence solving no more than the problems of daily life - and they are tough enough. This would not change what they are; such a person does not need to create anything demonstrable to the outside world, and we say more below about genius being an ability to see, more than anything, to see patterns invisible to others, rather than an ability to do anything. What the rest of us observe in someone is not the true measure of genius; geniuses are born into circumstances they do not control, with a number of personality traits which may hinder or aid their fulfilment, or they can get caught up in events beyond their control. When it comes to manifesting their genius, a range of factors must be involved - emotional stability, diligence, insight, bravery or shyness and so on, as well as choice. Equally, they might express their genius but not in a form currently recognised by society.
So genius does not lie in the doing or making; genius means first and foremost understanding, seeing, and it may then find expression in various different forms, or it may not express itself at all.
But did you notice the subtle variation in the use and meaning of the term? Even in the above brief paragraphs, context can suggest either that someone is a genius or that he has genius.
The Greeks spoke of having genius. In other words they saw super-gifted individuals as normal people in every way, like everybody else, but with something extra, which the rest did not have. Difficult to disagree with that, but with caution: geniuses do see the world around them in very different terms, and this includes seeing the most trivial and mundane in a different way - they always see beneath the surface. We have to remember the ancient Greeks knew nothing about the physiology of the brain and its functions, nor anything about the psychology of intelligence.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENIUS AND INTELLIGENCE
A common misapprehension is that genius is someone of extremely high intelligence. Some psychologists actually define it so. But in truth, there are many extremely bright surgeons, scientists etc. not all of whom are true geniuses. Genius does have something to do with someone's IQ - you cannot be thick and a genius - but you can be extremely intelligent yet no genius. Conversely, it is possible for a genius to score average in a formal IQ test because such tests are designed to measure specific functions of the mind in the general population, whereas genius means the very opposite, it means being uniquely different from all others, being able to see, and possibly do, something nobody else can. It certainly means thinking in a very different way, different from everyone else.
This needs some clarification, so we will diverge briefly to talk about intelligence, rather than genius.
Intelligence can take many different forms.
We often hear the question 'What is intelligence?' What we can say for sure is that intelligence has nothing to do with knowledge, so it does not mean someone who knows a lot of facts. An intelligent mind is more likely to seek out knowledge and become more knowledgeable or better informed, but the two should not be confused. Medical and legal specialists have to acquire huge amounts of knowledge but this will not make them intelligent, if they were not to start with. Also, certain individuals can and do memorise huge amounts of information, often on trivial topics, which cannot even be called knowledge in any sense, because they are just a pile of unconnected or ephemeral data.
Intelligence, simply put, is processing power. The human brain is not like a computer but, just as in computers the power of the processing chip has nothing to do with the amount of information stored on their hard disk, likewise with the human brain, no amount of knowledge will make someone more intelligent, even though it could make them more able to use their intelligence well. New-born babies may have inherited high intelligence from their parents, but there is not much they can do with it.
Your calculator must be very 'clever' to work out square roots instantly, but it cannot process graphics like your smart phone, it does not have enough processing power, and your smart phone cannot defeat Gary Kasparov in chess like IBM's Deep Blue computer. They do not all have the same processing power and never will, no matter how much you upgrade the software. Their HARDWARE is different from each other.
Another comparison that could help is with camera resolution. In digital cameras, different ones have more or less megapixels, and their lenses can have different resolution too. This means that higher resolution cameras can see the difference between objects which to lesser cameras look the same. And in humans, those with more intelligence can see differences which are invisible to others, differences in the meaning and nuance of words, for example. Ask yourself and your friends, if you like, what is the difference between intelligence, aptitude, wisdom, insight, judgement, or smart, clever, perceptive, rational, logical, analytical, experienced, judicious, sensible, shrewd, thoughtful, wise, crafty, etc. If your friends are bright, they will tell you straight away that, although they appear as synonyms in a thesaurus, each word has a different meaning, and they will tell you what the difference is, whereas others may find it difficult to understand their different meanings even after you have explained it to them - their 'cameras' do not have enough resolution. Finer detail is lost on some, and sometimes the entire object may disappear, just like one satellite can see who you are from space, but another cannot even see your house, or even the street you are in. Lack of ability to see finer detail means a degree of blindness, just as some birds of prey can see things from a mile up which no human could see from closer up.
Another illustration would be kitchen jars. Simple people have, for example, one mental jar for beans, one for rice, one for pasta, etc. They fail to distinguish between kidney beans, black-eye, butter beans, broad beans and so on, or different types of pasta and rice. Perhaps, they do not even have any more jars, and they put other stuff in those three jars. Whereas, bright people who know the difference have separate jars. The brighter you are, the more mental jars you have; you see more classifications and can make finer distinctions.
That is why it is so important that, for example, our Judges are highly intelligent, nor just learned. If they are not, they decide on basic considerations, like "This was a case of …" and they leave it at that. Their brains are less capable of dealing with complexity, less capable of seeing the difference between this and other similar cases.
Simple minds often interrupt, while nodding agreement, to mis-repeat what they heard with stock expressions, like "Yes, six of one, half a dozen of the other…" They cannot see the finer points, see the difference. "It goes right over their head," if you pardon the stock expression, and they force everything into the same old jars they knew beforehand. Or you might say, "This was the best..." and they nod, "This was the one you loved." And so on.
MORE ABOUT INTELLIGENCE
Additionally, intelligence, or processing power, can take many different forms. Let's articulate precisely what this means: It means that intelligence does not come simply in quantity, but it takes a very particular form, from birth. Ways of thinking and ways of seeing the world are hard-wired in our brains, just like a gift for music, or indeed blue eyes or curly hair are imbedded in our bodies' DNA. If this is true of hair or skin pigment, it is equally true for any part of the body, including the brain.
In fact, the reality is far more complex. It is not just that you have, say, musical ability but this in itself can take many different forms, each one unique and genetically determined. Some find playing an instrument comes naturally to them, others, equally musical, find playing difficult, even though their interpretation is as great. Similarly, great dancers must have a profound appreciation of music in order to interpret it with movement, but they do not necessarily make great musicians - and great musicians cannot dance.
This bend of the mind goes beyond knowledge, study or expertise. It is hard-wired in the way this particular brain works. Indeed, some are gifted at maths but cannot understand how money works or how to use it, and could never run a business or even their own personal finances without making a mess. We all know such people personally.
Exceptions to this rule are rare, and certain unique individuals are gifted in more than one way - Leonardo da Vinci often is quoted as an example.
For some, understanding the nature of intelligence or genius may go against their cherished beliefs, against the grain, so to speak. There is great resistance to recognising that some brains are better than others by birth. This can happen, for example, if your whole life you have been brought up to believe that anybody can do anything, given enough training and experience. This is patently false and the belief has more to do with political, cultural or social views about equality and so on.
The misapprehension is that this implies some people are born inferior, or that there is no point in trying to do your best, all of them false presumptions. So they use other terms to describe someone's unique ability. Worse still, talent often is defined as someone who has succeeded commercially, or just been given a contract, before any sign of success. Ignorance, prejudice, arrogance, or even sincere naivety can foster misconceptions or prompt hostility and misunderstanding towards those genuinely gifted. 'If I practiced six hours a day, I also could play the violin like her.' They often ask gifted novelists, 'How do you get your ideas, do you do a lot of research?' They like to think that, if they did a lot of research, they too could write a great novel.
Yes, anybody can do anything, with the right training, up to a certain level and with the right personality. Anybody could learn to play the violin or write a story of 100,000 words, but could anybody play like Paganini, or write like Shakespeare? Could anybody have painted like Picasso or Raphael? Could anybody write music like Mozart? And out of so many brilliant physicists of his time, let alone of past millennia, why was Einstein the only one to see the universe in terms of relativity, a theory proven right time and again long after his death?
We know scientifically that talent or intelligence is the product of several hundred genes, and we do not all have the same genes, so it must follow that we do not all have the same talents or intelligence. Brain power varies from person to person in the same way physical strength does, regardless of how much training or body-building one does. We do not all have the same muscle, and in the same way we do not all have the same brain. For some reason, people are much more willing to admit that 'You are bigger them me' implying your superiority in physical strength, but are much more reluctant to accept superiority in intelligence, compared to themselves or between others in general.
WHAT IS GENIUS
If this is true of intelligence, it is much more so with genius. We may perceive there is something different about such individuals but we give our own explanation, often negative. In every society there is pressure to conform, and if this is true of outward behaviour, it is much more so of shared beliefs. Socrates and Jesus were put to death just for being different or preaching new truths. George Bernard Shaw said "All great truths begin as blasphemies," and the price of such blasphemies can be very high. People do not like those who are different.
And there is no doubting that geniuses are different from everybody else.
John Dryden wrote,
"Great wits are to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide."
Aristotle, himself a genius, had said something similar thousands of years earlier: "There was never a genius without a tincture of madness."
It would be more accurate to say that genius will always appear
like madness to others, by definition. At the very least, such people
seem 'difficult.' Genius is so far out of the ordinary, and their thinking
so different from the agreed norm, it feels very difficult to connect
with them on their level; you have to be 'crazy' to think like that. But,
if everyone else could see 'that', it would not be genius.
Genius involves uniqueness, a combination of qualities which include intelligence, cerebral thinking, creativity and the ability to do or see something which nobody else can - usually involving a shortcut in thinking vindicated by the end result.
Even this needs clarification, because each one of us is unique, and the word is used loosely about many.
Einstein, for example, showed us that space and time were aspects of the same thing and both are bent by gravity. Most still find it difficult to understand this. "Time does not exist," a fellow university student once told me, "it is just a concept." To him the concept of space-time seemed crazy, and he was totally forgivable because everyone else thought so too, for thousands of years.
So what was it about Einstein that enabled him to see something that nobody else could? It would be foolish to attempt a full explanation of Einstein's mind, but we can certainly say, for example, that Einstein did not rely on normal scientific thinking. Neither did he rely on calculating - that came afterwards. Science and maths are only two ways of seeing, they are just tools. There are many others. His was the opposite process to some physicists of today who expect the maths to reveal truth before they can conceptualise it. Greater minds understand that science is limited to a certain level of complexity. Instead, Einstein used what he called 'thought experiments.' He had superior imagination. He actually said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited." Indeed, knowledge is, mostly, what other people have thought of in the past. Einstein had a combination of qualities which enabled him to see for himself in a way nobody else had done. He had, or was, a genius.
This explains also why the most intelligent brains of the time, and highly expert in the field, found it impossible to classify the chemical elements, but a non-expert in the field, Mendeleev, did. By putting the emphasis on atomic weight he formulated the basis for the modern periodic table. Why had nobody else done that before him despite trying so hard, when it seems so obvious to us now? Simply because it takes a genius to visualise what lies beneath the surface and see underlying reality. There may have been faults in his own original table, but the point about genius is not to get lost in the technical details, but to have the vision. Anybody else can do the nitty-gritty work afterwards, given enough technical expertise.
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei
His teacher once said to Einstein, "You are a smart boy, Einstein, but you have one great fault, you do not allow yourself to be told anything." That is generally a problem and a sign of low intelligence, but it is also a sign of genius, and only another genius can tell the difference between the two. To the ordinary mind, no matter how intelligent, the mind of a genius seems nonsensical. Indeed, Einstein went to show that Newton's proven equations, another genius, were right mathematically but wrong in their wider implications. He went on to destroy established wisdom on just about everything. If Einstein had been just obedient, compliant and studious, he would have been called a better student but would never have discovered anything, and the whole of science would be in darkness today.
So genius is the ability to glimpse reality beneath the visible spectrum. In other words, patterns which are invisible to others, are seen by genius minds instantly. They see connections between things which seem completely unrelated - and they make great discoveries as a result. Simplified further, it is the ability to see, metaphorically speaking, as opposed to lacking the sense of sight.
The vast majority of people cannot see beyond a certain level of complexity. This is true even of highly intelligent individuals who deal with extremely complex problems, such as studying the human body, operating on the brain of their patients, or sending spacecraft to other planets. One difference between this high level of intelligence and genius, is that genius does not need to go through a detailed analysis of the issue in order to understand it. He or she just sees it. To further pursue the analogy, someone blind may navigate a complex journey perfectly well using touch and sound, and can become extremely familiar with everything in a room. But a man with sight simply walks in and sees everything in an instant.
Genius involves the ability to achieve something intellectually with a single leap, bypassing all the stages others have to go through, even others with very high intelligence.
Geniuses deal with complexity in a very different way, without tracking each drop of water in the ocean. And they come up with unique solutions, while everyone else around them is spending years lost in details, or trying to improve the same old stuff.
Genius ideas are on a different scale altogether. They expose universal principles that are true for all time, things that never change, because the thinker has gone right to the very core.
I am convinced, for example, that Fermat had found a much simpler way to prove his famous last theorem than the method used later by other great mathematicians.
This preference for simplicity is often referred to by geniuses like Newton and Einstein. Einstein is reputed to have said, "Genius is to ask questions that only children would ask." He did say, "I am not a genius, I am just curious. I ask many questions, and when the answer is simple, then God is answering."
Genius always involves finding a simple route, whereas other routes to the same end might be tortured.
SPECIAL SKILLS AND CREATIVITY
So simplicity is a key element of genius but another is creativity.
I want to put forward as possible examples, the songs While Wedding by Billy Idol, and the lyrics of 99 Red Balloons, credited to Nena and Carlo Karges. Were they geniuses? If it is difficult to define genius, it is just as hard for us to pronounce any individual a genius, and we set out below how it takes a genius to know a genius. We have to look beyond our own emotional response or personal taste to see genius, especially difficult when it comes to a work of art. But there are clues here, as in, for example, the musical twists used by Billy Idol, or in the meaning of Nena and Carlo's words like "If I could find a souvenir, Just to prove the world was here..." (I.e. it is so difficult to sort what is important and truly representative, from the trivia, to make sense of it all,) plus many other profound meanings, not always intended by the artist. Why do you need a souvenir and why would you need to prove the world was here? They could have said simply, 'It is so hard to make sense of it all,' as ordinary song-writers do, but that would not have had the same multiplicity of meanings, nor the same depth. There must be depth of meaning and breadth of vision, or a multiplicity of meanings present in any work of art, and we say more below about the difference and the overlap between talent and genius.
The Mamas & Papas song Monday Monday sold millions and still does today but, before his death, John Edmund, who wrote the lyrics, said, "To this day, I don't know what it is about." Perfect illustration of how genius works. There are meanings springing deep from the artist's subconscious which are very real and can be felt by the rest of us but are more complex than words can make explicit, or he himself can explain. If they could be explained or articulated, they would be single-layered and therefore lacking the depth and complexity which only geniuses are capable of. What is he trying to say? Lesser minds demand tabloid headlines, so to speak, they want you to flash big letters and spell it out. Yet Monday Monday is not really about Mondays, it is about facing yet another day, facing our human lives, day by day, and the extraordinary experience of it all, mostly very difficult to explain or understand ourselves, and certainly difficult to deal with even when enjoyable, let alone when painful or tragic.
So it is possible to find true geniuses among pop stars or anywhere, but they are extremely rare and very difficult to spot, even if they have produced a piece of work which shows extraordinary talent.
You may have seen examples of autistic people with incredible skills and abilities and wondered whether such individuals are geniuses. For example, they can memorise a city-scape in one minute and then draw it in every tiny detail without looking at the subject again, or hear a piano piece just once and then re-play it immediately, no matter how complex - whereas a conventional gifted pianist might take hours to learn it. Others can tell you the day of the week for any given date, past or future, in an instant, when in fact there is no mathematical formula for doing this and nobody knows how they do it, not even themselves. These sort of abilities do not come only in autistic people. Yes, they are rare, but they exist in others, and they come in all forms. Whether such people are true geniuses or not is a different question, suffice only to say that true genius must involve also creativity - creating something new and with a greater meaning, even if just in their own minds, as opposed to recreating.
Geniuses can deal with chaotic complexity through a different mental process, they see a different picture, and then also they come up with extraordinary new ideas of their own initiative.
We all produce good ideas at times, some more than others. Ideas can come after familiarity, training, experience, observation and with intelligence. Great ideas do not. That needs something extra. They come from brains which are wired to see the world in a very different way. Hence they produce paintings which are unique, music of a kind we have not heard before, novels which surprise with profound insights at every level, dance moves which we thought impossible, and all of these revealing great meaning, previously unseen.
TEAMWORK AND IDEAS
Today, in some cultures at least, there is great emphasis on teamwork. And successful projects do come from good teams. So much can and has been achieved through teamwork which would have been impossible otherwise. However, putting teamwork above all else can mean missing out on unique insights from individuals with a very different view of the world who could never function as part of a team. One must always decide what level of a solution one is after. The greatest solutions, inventions and creations came from individuals working alone. No team could ever come up with the 9th of Beethoven or relativity, and the Eiffel Tower was violently opposed as a crackpot idea before it was built, yet became one of the landmarks of the world. It took a good team to build it, but teams could be replaced, whereas the mind of Mr Eiffel could not.
If you want good ideas you put a good team together. If you want great ideas you listen to the lone voice from the wilderness.
But do not try this at home. You must be a genius yourself to know which 'madman' to listen to. And genius madmen cannot just appear like rabbits out of a hat.
Thomas Edison is reputed to have said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." The truth is a) that geniuses first need to learn established thinking, if only to find its faults, they need the necessary information, and b) when young, they need teachers and/or parents who recognise gifted pupils, and create a nurturing environment for them. So, hard work and environment, yes, just as long as we understand, it was not such factors which made a genius, and if we ignore the genetic nature of genius, we can do great damage, trying to mould such minds into established ways of seeing the world.
Exceptional ability can be stifled. So the message here is, do not mess with nature.
Thomas Edison's self-deprecating aphorism is similar to Einstein's, "I am not a genius, I am just curious." Clearly not true; lots of us are curious without being Einsteins. And of course it is possible that Edison was not a real genius - we just do not know - because inventions can come about by accident or, as he said, after a lot of 'perspiration', in other words trial and error. He once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Neither Edison nor Einstein was trying to make a scientific statement about themselves but a remark for general consumption.
Edison's words could be misunderstood to mean that you become a genius at a certain point after hard work, and the truth is you become a genius in the eyes of others after some accomplishment - they had no way of knowing who and what you were before that. But factually, millions of people have worked just as hard at science or in other fields but they would be the first to admit it did not turn them into geniuses. You have to be one in the first place, before the necessary perspiration.
This means that genius is one hundred per cent genetic, there is nothing you can do to become a genius, if you are not one from birth, but you still need to become familiar with all the elements of a problem before you can solve it.
And to complete the circle, 'knowing' has nothing to do with genius, just like knowledge has nothing to do with intelligence, intelligence also being genetic and inborn.
TALENT AND GENIUS
It is for this reason I am opposed to the idea of so-called writing schools, to give but one example, let alone handing out university degrees in creative writing. There is a craft element to creative writing, but that is always learned quickly by experience, and it is such a small part compared to the greater importance of revealing truth and meaning through one's work, which is what great writers do. You have to have something new, great and unique to say, you have to have seen something nobody else has. How you then say it is important but less important.
Such graduates are then published and are called 'new talent' by the industry, when in fact most of them have no talent whatsoever, they just learned to fulfil certain criteria, and there is nothing new they can tell us about the world we live in - no greater truths, no new meaning. Unlike art schools where the craft element is far greater, the truth is that writing schools exist mostly to capitalise on the desire of millions of untalented people to be published authors, and thus make money - the school, that is. Plus also that most publishers today are not looking to reveal great meaning but for manuscripts that fulfil writing school criteria that make life easy for the publisher himself.
"The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell," attributed to Confucius.
Whereas we all have suffered from men who know how to sell, we have benefited much more from the unique insights of genius minds, without whom our world would have been a much darker place.
© John K
Smyrniotis
London 2020
Related links:
Preface
to Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw.
