Philosophical Questions: Genius

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

How would you define genius?


Talent hits a target nobody else can hit. Genius hits a target nobody else can see.

Do you break the top off of tests? And have been doing this since you were little? Do people call you a freak for being smart? Do they say you're not human? Hate you because you can do things they can't? Pick on you and then demand that you do their homework for them? Are you constantly accused of cheating? Are you frustrated at being held back because everyone else is stupid and slow? Are you interested in uncommon and esoteric topics like quantum physics or ancient languages? And you find popular topics like fashion, sports, or other people's sex lives to be boring and pointless? Do you explain things and people still don't grasp them? Are things obvious to you that nobody else understands? Can you routinely do things in one or more areas without any explanation because you glance at them and the process is obvious? Do you invent new things (machines, recipes, programs, genres, etc.)? Do you often know things that "experts" don't? These are some common signs of being a genius.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Umm... I don't think I'm a genius, but that sounds awfully familiar...

Still can't spell worth a damn though.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Umm... I don't think I'm a genius, but that sounds awfully familiar... <<

I tend to think you are. You talk about building and inventing things in your workshop. You have mentioned some high-end knowledge of things like nuclear physics.

>> Still can't spell worth a damn thoug <<

1) Nobody's good at everything.

2) English is a Category 5 language if you didn't grow up with it.

Re: Thoughts

[siliconshaman]

I've been told that I speak English as if it was my second language... by an ESL teacher! I think my brain came with the Norse presets.

I dunno about being genius though, I mean I tested as having an I.Q of 127, but that was before I was diagnosed as dyslexic (although technically it's dysgraphia, as this before it was differentiated.) I certainly don't think of myself as being one. Pretty sure I lost a few points after COVID as well... Maybe genius-lite perhaps? Either way, it's not useful descriptor.

What I am is eternally curious, and I've picked up a rag-bag of tag-ends of knowledge on a whole host of topics, and occasionally that'll make connections that aren't obvious.

Which, come to think of it, is perhaps what genius is about. Not a capacity for knowledge, but a function of the ability to make connections, an inventiveness or flexibility of the mind, to be creative... an unmeasured Y or Z axis on the I.Q scale basically.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

You write English better than most of my ESL students.

>>I dunno about being genius though, I mean I tested as having an I.Q of 127,...<<

Well, from what I can tell a bunch of your behavior patterns match the smart people in my family.

>>Maybe genius-lite perhaps? Either way, it's not useful descriptor.<<

It depends on where you draw the line, I guess. Maybe a bit on type of intelligence, too. Science-and-math are more obviously geniuslike than, say, kinesthetic intelligence and showier than a high EQ.

>>What I am is eternally curious...<<

There seems to be a high correlation between intelligence and curiosity.

[see_also_friend]

I once heard that "Genius takes the complex and makes it simple." (That was out of a book, and the in-the-book example was teaching special needs kids to do a spacecraft simulation by making the training into a board game.)

I'll add to your list:
- Do you ask questions that confuse the experts, especially in a 'break the record player' fashion?
- Do other people hear your interesting discussions and find them tedious, annoying, or argumentative?
- Do you get sidetracked with random details of simple tasks? (Think "The card is wrong!" arguments on trivia games.)
- Can you come up with Take a Third Option choices? ("If I am, may I remain there, and if I am not, may I soon be.")
- Do you operate on a different [higher] level of ethics than most people in your age or social group? [Note: arguing that oneself is a genius so oneself is exempt from ethical restrictions is not a sign of genius, it is a sign of being a jackass /at best/.]
- Do you find usual social rituals boring and/or pointless?

Let's see, Genius Questions.

- I've always been able to comprehend a lot of intellectual information way ahead of my peers.

- Social and emotional stuff...splits. I'm very good at emotional labor and regulating other people's emotions, and as a kid I was usually better with adults than other kids. Conversely, I fell I am not great with social or emotional skills in general (objectively, I am probably better than average though. Plus, I keep butt-dialing social bonding routines. ???)

- I am certainly frustrated that people do obviously dumb things... and then whine about the consequences.

- I am interested in less-common topics (how many people like to discuss xenolinguistics?) and fashion is more interesting if I think of it as art/artistic presentation or a tool. (I suppose the proper word would be style, not [fast] fashion, then?)

- I will be politely interested in sports if and only if I already like someone to whom sports are interesting. (I.e. Asking how their team did, or "I'm playing baseball socially, not competitively," where the bonding is more important than the actual activity.)

- I try to nerf my explanations to things but there are still plenty of things people don't understand (some obvious, some less so). Not sure if it is intellectual, if I have nonstandard brain wiring, or if I am a half-step out of consensus reality tho...

- I can usually easily do things that are variations on an existing skillset (having a high-level skill isn't in and of itself remarkable), but I think I do have above-average abilities in figuring out which skillsets will work with wildly different problems.

- Cooking...I can sometimes toss together good meals from odds and ends; I'd think of it as a subset of artistic skill. I am above average with visual art. I also tend to jury-rig solutions to all sorts of problems, ranging from making custom educational materials to fixing kid's toys.

- Re: experts...define expert.

I am definitely very smart, and my family has a tendency towards high intelligence on both sides, but I don't know if I count as a genius. It depends on where you draw the line, I guess?

For what its worth, the one relative I have who I would clearly describe as a genius...well, I never got to meet him, but from what I can figure, we would have all sorts of delightful interesting conversations...as soon as he got over the fact that I am wearing pants*!

*He would be shocked by modern fashion (grew up on the Edwardian Era). But to his credit he had absolutely no problem with smart women!