My intelligence has been frequently insulted by the following remark
"“Who do you think you are? Einstein?”
Maths is not my bag
In that arena I do not think I am Einstein
nor do I think I am Babe Ruth in the baseball arena
But I do not think Einstein was more intelligent than I
Or Babe Ruth more physically accomplished than I
I can more or less guarantee that if any sportsman or any Mensa member
were stranded with me on a desert island
we would soon see how level the general intelligence quotient is
the simple fact is that we are all the collective survivors of 100,000 generations of human development
all born with the same basic mix of genes
and the same on-going survival potentials
In this general sense nobody is more intelligent than another
our different levels of natural expertise in the sciences and arts and crafts and sports
are related to a vastly complex system of natural selection related to our collectuive survival
each one of us is born with a specific ability that contributes to the evolution of the the psyche of the whole
This is an area of specific intelligence quotas and their inter-relationships that our education system
has barely begun to explore or make the best of
and while we continue to evaluate people at artificially elevated superior levels of intelligence
and reward them beyond others for a genius that rightfully belongs to the species as a whole
the evolution of the specie will continue to unnecessarily suffer all kinds of individual feelings of inferiority
and collective depressions
Einstein’s genius is pointless
if it is not related to the genius of the global culture that supports it
and that support is dependent on the genius of every soul keeping the specie from extinction
there is not a single worker in any field of social support
that is not born with the genius to excel at the labor he or she is assigned to
Einstein and the Joe the janitor
are born from the same original seed of intelligence
their General Intelligence Quotient
given the specific education opportunity related to their specific natural ability
is precisely equal
I agree with this view of intelligence. I’ve heard it defined as the ability to think flexibly in new ways according to each individual situation. I always liked that definition. Of course, this means that I find that I am sometimes intelligent and sometimes not depending on whether I can think well (and creatively) at the time. But I am always happy when I do.
IMO a great deal of society would likely agree with you, however I am too inclined to agree with the other definition. IMO navigation of society is the opposite of what most should consider genius.
Society is temporal, chaotic, and irrational. Honing yourself to bend at its whim makes you, IMO, less palpable to becoming a genius in something with meaning.
“many paths, religious or secular, requiring significant investments of self, time and resources, are likely to at some point bring one into some level of conflict with common behaviors and levels of self-management that are considered “normal”.”
Real genius is dirty wierd and rarely would someone consider the bearer a social butterfly.
In fact I would argue society is mediocrity incarnate. Being able to navigate it is nothing short of average.
I don’t know how you got all that from my one statement, but do please tell me how you arrived at the notion that I meant one had to bend to society’s whim in order to successfully navigate it? and by that I meant keeping on top of things without the use of the conflict-inducing concepts you mentioned…
Are you then saying that someone who is bad at staying afloat in a drowning world is genius?
what squat is saying and what i agree with is that genius, usually considered as “weird” is necessary to save a drowning world.
I am also saying that, under a different education standard, the general intelligence quotient is the same for all of us. Therefore each of us is capable of activating our innate genius.
I don’t think it takes genius. It takes people being able to think well in new and creative ways. All that requires is a clear head, a break from the past and old ways of thinking that don’t work, and a willingness to try something new until it does work.
