Recognizing genius
By 
Shan-ul-Hai •
July 24, 2008
Humans have done more disgusting things than what I can even begin to fathom. The worst part about this is the fact that we let it happen not because of malicious intent, but because of irrational submission. Much of the German population - as well as a substantial part of the rest of the world - let the Nazis take over most of Europe before they rose up against Hitler. The Soviet population never once questioned Stalin and he lived a long life full of unquestionable totalitarian power. Saddam Hussein controlled the masses to the point where, despite the fact that he ruled during the Information Age, the entire world was made to believe that Iraqis were happy under his direction.
This happens because people are not inherently smart enough to challenge their leaders. Leadership does not require intellect; the smartest people in the history of the world chose to become scientists and artists and philosophers. Abraham Lincoln’s IQ, high as it was, pales in comparison to people like Michelangelo and Beethoven. So why do we let our smartest people spend their lives making sculptures and composing symphonies instead of developing public policy that will substantially affect the population of the entire world?
Well, geniuses cannot be controlled. We create policies like No Child Left Behind so that we can make sure that no child gets too far ahead. If the smartest people controlled the world, then the masses wouldn’t understand what they do and why they do it… so instead, the masses elect somebody whose motives are much more comprehensible. If we choose a leader who wants power and respect, then we can understand what they’re looking for; when we run across somebody who is simply pleased by the beauty of a macroscopic system in which function follows structure, we get confused. That’s why we nominated Bush over McCain in 2000, Gore over Bradley in 2000, Bush over Gore, Kerry over Dean in 2004, Bush over Kerry, McCain over Ron Paul, and Medvedev over Kasparov (Russia 2008). The only way that Obama, unlike Ron Paul, managed to secure votes in 2008 (despite his high intelligence) is by dumbing down his message so that everybody could understand his motives.
We can’t recognize genius and we dismiss it when we do find it. Galileo’s plight is not just a thing of the past. Darwin’s theories are still immediately dismissed by people who don’t even have a full understanding of how natural selection works. More recently, much of the public has ignored the science behind global climate change and has called it a conspiracy solely because they don’t like Al Gore.
As a child, I didn’t pay attention in math and science classes because I thought that the concepts were easy to the point of being boring; in return, I was chided. I didn’t go to my first-semester college physics class because the professor was too slow; because of my attendance, I received a ‘B’ despite my high test scores. I was placed in one advanced class after another, but I only discovered intellectual arousal when I played in chess tournaments against people who studied the game for hours every day. Why was I ignored? Why was I pushed into a career in medicine (which can be easily performed by a person with much lower IQ) when my intellect could be exploited elsewhere in original research? Why was I treated like a slacker just because I didn’t have to work hard to understand the material in school?
If we don’t improve our ability to recognize genius, we will never gain the ability to exploit it. True equality can only be achieved if the geniuses are treated just like everybody else… but if we go out of our way to restrict the next Isaac Newton to the standardized public education system, who knows what kinds of discoveries we may be preventing? The smartest man in America, super-genius Christopher Langan, had to drop out of college because he felt so restricted; he ended up spending his peak years working as a bouncer at a Long Island nightclub while he used his spare time to work on his Cognitive-Theoretical Model of the Universe. What if we’d discovered his genius at a young age and nurtured it to the point where he could make some real lasting contributions? How many other geniuses (not including people of Langan’s capacity; he’s far beyond just a genius) are we ignoring?
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Clever people don’t want to be in the spotlight because they know they will have to deal with idiots. That’s a very good deterent. Note that not all scientists are that clever (if they were they would not work in science, believe me!) but at least it provide a space were world madness can be kept aside!
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.JosephConradJoseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
I can understand your plight in school. When I was in grade one I was diagnosed being dyslexic (I was lucky I had a really great teacher at the time when most dyslexic kids were being labeled mentally challenged).
After receiving some help, I excelled at school. I too found it extremely boring and because of that never paid much attention. I received a Bachelors in Computer Science and a Masters in Mathematics, all the while never feeling challenged (I am not trying to boast). I could not relate to the difficulties my fellow students were having. I think most gifted people feel ostracized to some extent because of this.
Back to the point of leadership, to borrow a line from a sappy movie. “A person is smart. People are are ignorant, dumb and panicky.” 90% or more of people do not want to think or make decisions. They would rather be sheep and have some one else do all the thinking and decision making for them. This is reflected in the low turn outs of voters. I could go on and on. But I will end here saying - people fear being intellectual challenged.
1. There are many problems which deserve our attention, both domestic and abroad. It is easy, in hindsight, to be shameful of our nation for not acting earlier about Hitler, Hussein, et al. But why didn’t (don’t) we do more in Rwanda, Darfur, North Korea…..? We cannot intervene in every foreign war or human rights fiasco. We can’t even really handle Afghanistan and Iraq. It is impossible to control all of the foreign rulers who take part in genocide, nuclear arms development, human rights violations, etc. I would not call it “irrational submission”. There are many complex forces at work and you make it sound like there is some kind of simple solution to these issues.
“This happens because people are not inherently smart enough to challenge their leaders.”
“so instead, the masses elect somebody whose motives are much more comprehensible.”
At least in this country, it is probably because people don’t care enough. Voter turnout is ridiculously low. Even among voters, understanding of the candidate’s views are probably rather low. Only two real political parties? Give me a break. Too much focus is given to social issues, such as abortion or gay marriage, which affect a minority of the population, and not enough concern is pointed at the major issues. Voting ties often run in families based on religious and social beliefs, and citizen apathy is downright shameful. If everyone were required to read maybe 5 pages about each candidate’s record and positions about the major issues at hand, I think this country would be much better off.
2. “So why do we let our smartest people spend their lives making sculptures and composing symphonies instead of developing public policy that will substantially affect the population of the entire world?”
Where do the majority of the graduates of the top colleges go in the US? Wall Street, corporate law, consulting, medicine….As this article argues, colleges today are not nurturing the minds of their students, but facilitating entry into lucrative fields.
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su08/elite-deresiewicz.html
There are many types of intelligence, and I’m not sure a musician would be any better dealing with public policy than a chemist…I’m not sure anyone is “letting” anyone do anything. The culture among most of the brightest students and top colleges needs to somehow focus back on public policy, but I disagree with your second paragraph.
3. “Why was I pushed into a career in medicine (which can be easily performed by a person with much lower IQ) when my intellect could be exploited elsewhere in original research?”
This probably has more to do with family pressure than societal pressure.
4. I don’t think the “recognizing genius” is as big of a deal as you make it seem. More than anywhere else in the world, America is in a position to produce the next Beethoven or Einstein. Heck, Einstein wasn’t “recognized” at an early age. He couldn’t find a teaching post and he was passed over for promotion at the patent office (wikipedia). Newton was not particularly “recognized” either. I don’t think we’re preventing the growth of many geniuses. People like Bill Gates manage to succeed when the they are intelligent and motivated and the environment is conducive.
In how many countries is this possible–http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5247526&page=1
The pace of growth in the past few decades amazes me. Things like the internet, genetic engineering, artificial limbs, are truly remarkable and although there is much room for improvement in the education system, I don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as you make it seem.
lol
(1) dude you weren’t that smart in high school … you were probably smarter than me but defn not the super genius you seem to hint you are … i really don’t think the problem was that you weren’t intellectually challenged w/ academics … you just didn’t care … nobody told you that you can only look at topics that are taught to you … you could’ve very well taken harder classes which were options … People prob did recognize your potential .. you just didn’t want to do that type of stuff …
(2) Why was I pushed into a career in medicine (which can be easily performed by a person with much lower IQ) when my intellect could be exploited elsewhere in original research?
you could still do original research .. and if you were pushed into medicine it is prob b/c (1) you wanted the money (2) you don’t have the guts to make a decision for yourself … there are people who have withstood pressures to go into medicine.
(3) Who said medicine can be performed by people w/ lower IQ?
are you a doctor? i presume not … so why would you claim that you know everything about being a doctor. I am doing original research … and I don’t find that my “superior” intellect helps me so much … funny enough, my intelligence is actually much below a “typical” doctor … so yea … ultimately to be a really good doctor or a good researcher you need to be smart and you need to WORK HARD …there are no short cuts for that …
Why was I treated like a slacker just because I didn’t have to work hard to understand the material in school?
> did you do all the hwk that was reqd? slackers are people who don’t do work … if you did your work in school and it didn’t take you long … people would’ve thought u were a genius … like say people, i am sure, you still remember …
anyway good luck …
(1) All physiological occurrences are the product of the interactions of hormones and neurotransmitters. It’s impossible to just “not care”… not to mention that I actually did care. I actually did do all of my work in high school… that’s not what I’m talking about here. I mean when I was much younger and I could have still been shaped however people wanted me to be shaped. Also, I did skip most of my college classes because I found them to be painfully slow-paced.
(2) I’m not saying that I was “forced” into a career in medicine; I said I was “pushed”. I’m not talking about myself here; I’m using myself as an example for a lot of other people.
(3) Average IQ for doctors is about 120, with the 90th percentile at about 132-133. That’s how I know that the job “can be easily performed by a person with much lower IQ”… because it usually is. My IQ is about 150, which is a full two standard deviations above the mean for doctors (assuming a normal distribution, which probably doesn’t exist in this restricted sets).
1. Shaped?? You should take more responsibility for your own education. No one was stopping you from expanding your horizons.
2. You didn’t really respond to lol’s points, not that you responded to mine, either.
3. Boy, with that IQ, you better at least get an HHMI grant. j/k. I’m willing to bet IQ plays a relatively minor role in doctoring, i.e. you wouldn’t automatically prefer a doctor with a 150 vs 110. and like lol said, there are plenty of MDs who do nothing but research. why not become one of them?
I agree… nobody stopped me, and I should have gone farther than I did. That’s a separate question; this post isn’t about me, it’s about a broader topic… if you nitpick at the details, we accomplish nothing. I know that I could have gone farther… I’m just an example of a common scenario. If people with high IQs were properly exploited, I think we’d have a better society.