Do You Have What It Takes to be a Genius?

[stoorssarg]

ARE you a genius*** :- )

What do you think gives a person special mental abilities? (IQ of 149+) Is it all genetics or just your environment, or a combination of the two? Do you think the IQ test really measures your mental ability? Or is there other factors that the IQ test doesn't take into consideration such as creativity and so on. OR maybe genius is just a state of mind that we all can achieve.

 

[Werg22]

Genius is the ability to elude innate human stupidity, at least in my opinion.

 

[turbo]

Genius is the ability to elude innate human stupidity, at least in my opinion.

Good analogy. Creativity and imagination can trump craftsmanship and the "grind" of the trails fostered by a lack of epistemology.

 

[Kummer]

ARE you a genius*** :- )

I like to think that. I have an outsanding memory. Learn advanced mathematics on my own. I can pass my exams in 1/3 the given time.

 

[ranger]

IQ tests are inaccurate.
I like Werg22's definition of genius. And last time I checked, finishing [and passing] an exam in less than half the time is not grounds for being a genius.

 

[ice109]

I like to think that. I have an outsanding memory. Learn advanced mathematics on my own. I can pass my exams in 1/3 the given time.

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

 

[Werg22]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

I don't know about this. Some true geniuses are very well conscious that they are geniuses.

 

[Kummer]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

History has it that Gauss was a little of a show off. He was proud to have been the greatest mathematician of his time. I am well sure that he knew he was the genius par excellence.

Same thing with Galois.

---
Just because a quotation sounds nice does not mean it is correct (adapted from Voltaire).

 

[waht]

But Galois died at 20 in a duel fight because he probably was too confident.

 

[cristo]

Being a show off does not mean that you think you're a genius, it just means you're arrogant. However, there's nothing wrong with a bit of arrogance in my opinion.

 

[tacosareveryyum]

Who cares if you are a genius or not if you do not use your talents for the betterment of mankind.
Being smart doesn't really differentiate you from anyone else. In my personal experience, achievement isn't obtained from being smarter than everyone else. It is obtained through determination and perseverance.
Genius is a state of mind we can all achieve.

 

[moose]

It almost takes one to know one. How often have you heard someone say "so and so is a genius", about someone who is simply educated or slightly smarter than average? It happens quite often.

 

[end3r7]

Well... I can draw a perfect circle with just a pencil, if that counts for anything. =P

 

[ice109]

Being a show off does not mean that you think you're a genius, it just means you're arrogant. However, there's nothing wrong with a bit of arrogance in my opinion.

there are many things wrong with being arrogant, not the least of which is that there will always be someone who you should be humbled by.

 

[Chi Meson]

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

Perhaps more aptly: "...telling others that you're a genius."

If you have genius, it will show. If you have to tell other people that you are a genius, then it's not showing.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Well... I can draw a perfect circle with just a pencil, if that counts for anything. =P

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

 

[wolram]

Geniuses eat cold food and wear slip on shoes

 

[moose]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

 

[fourier jr]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

lmao that's hilarious. i can't believe people take that seriously.

 

[DeadWolfe]

I wonder how the judge this freehand circle competition.

 

[ice109]

Perhaps more aptly: "...telling others that you're a genius."

If you have genius, it will show. If you have to tell other people that you are a genius, then it's not showing.

i just kind of assume that if you're smart, you know to be humble.

 

[BillJx]

Some people define gifted children by IQ scores alone, but define gifted adults by the combination of IQ and actual achievement. Seems reasonable to me.

My IQ scores are fairly high, especially verbal reasoning, but a lot of my co-workers are smarter at troubleshooting. I guess a high IQ score must mean you're good at something, but I'm not sure it's proof of intelligence except in a narrow sense.

 

[Danger]

Someone in PF (I think that it was Evo or Moonbear) once pointed out the truth about IQ tests. The only thing that they prove is how good you are at taking IQ tests.

 

[mathwonk]

I suspect genius has little to do with IQ. Galois apparently failed admissions exams to top unis so would likely have received low IQ scores, yet was clearly a genius.

IQ means agreeing with accepted norms of intelligence, genius seems to be the opposite.so all us fruitcakes can claim genius!Lots of people have IQ over 149, probably many on this forum, but are not even that smart, much less geniuses. i think mine was at least 85, last i checked, (but i cheated a little).

 

[stoorssarg]

I wonder how the judge this freehand circle competition.

they use geometry to figure out who drew the most precise circle

 

[turbo]

Some people define gifted children by IQ scores alone, but define gifted adults by the combination of IQ and actual achievement. Seems reasonable to me.

My IQ scores are fairly high, especially verbal reasoning, but a lot of my co-workers are smarter at troubleshooting. I guess a high IQ score must mean you're good at something, but I'm not sure it's proof of intelligence except in a narrow sense.

My IQ scores have been very high since childhood, and I have been compulsively drawn to the "why" and "how" of everything from a young age. As a young adult as the lead operator on the start-up of the most technologically advanced paper machine of the early 1980s (read: most oversold, most prone to failure, most speculative joint venture to that date), I puzzled out some of the most vexing problems that the engineers of our company and the engineers of the manufacturer's company (our partner) could not solve. As a result, I later worked with that paper machine manufacturer's senior troubleshooter as a technical consultant. He was 30 years my senior, neither of us had a degree, and on our first troubleshooting project together, he had me make the presentation to management/production/engineering staff since I was the one who had deduced their primary problem.

Most wet-streak problems on a paper machine arise at the wet end (where the pulp/water/additive slurry is shot onto a moving mesh wire by the headbox) and I think that he handed me that section of the machine because he knew my strengths and wanted me to score an early victory with a skittish client. Some of the senior staff at the mill tried to poo-poo my explanation of the poor practices that caused their problem (wet steaks/ poor drying/sheet breaks) until my mentor had enough and raised his hand and said "Do what he said and your problem is solved - don't and you'll lose production every day". It was a matter that involved slacking off the tension of a cable-raised breast roll mechanism after every wire change. Total cost - 5 seconds of time after the breast roll arm was raised. Total payback - the recovery of tens of thousands of dollars (at a bare minimum - more like hundreds of thousands some days) of lost production per day. The technical service we provided was free. We worked for a company that sold industrial textiles to paper mills and we solved their problems with the honest expectation that if we could help them make them a bunch of money, they would buy our textiles instead of those made by our competitors. It worked.

Genius? No. Getting the job done? The proof is in the customer loyalty and continued business. BTW, Omega (his real name) had a mentor, too. An 80+ year old gentleman who sat on the gang boxes (rolling tool cribs) and watched us try to get that paper machine running back in the '80s. Every once in a while, that old fellow would beckon me over during some trying times and give me a hint or two. That time was never wasted. Automation is a way to get things done with fewer people or with less human interaction. Sometimes the real genius is a person able to cut to the quick and pull off a fundamental improvement with little or no effort - just insight.

 

[wildman]

Am I a genius? No, not even close. But I have had the good fortune to work for one in a major discovery (being defined as something that others had spent millions of dollars and years of effort to try to do unsuccessfully). It was thrilling beyond words even though I was strickly grunt labor and my name didn't appear on the paper (rightly so). He was very aware he was brilliant beyond any of us. Not arrogantly, it was just the way it was like the sky being blue or grass green.

 

[Smurf]

Y I am.

first sign you're not a genius? thinking you're a genius

Damn

 

[daveb]

I have been called genius far too numerous times to count. Usually when I did something totally boneheaded.

 

[cristo]

I have been called genius far too numerous times to count. Usually when I did something totally boneheaded.

You mean like http://www.theonion.com/content/video/report_70_percent_of_all_praise?

 

[daveb]

Ooo! Great work Einstein! Finding that link! (Slow applause)
(The news report about the live Hungry Hungry Hippo was hilarious!)

 

[end3r7]

Cool - you should go up against this guy:

Damn! Well, guess my circles are not that perfect...

 

[Gib Z]

I wish i was a genius :( Definitely am not though. Something I've realized over the past few months is that I'm not "good" at math like i thought i was. Terry Tao is Good at math, I'm just interested in it, somewhat well read and practiced in it. Any standard tests and exercises in textbooks I can do, but when it comes to an insight problem, like something in an Olympiad, I fall to my knees..~sigh~

 

[Werg22]

To the OP, after a quick research, it seems that the IQ demarcation for genius is 140+, not 149+.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Even though my IQ score will not support me on this, I have always considered myself to be a genius. I base this on the fact that I use a lot of big words that I don't necessarily understand. However, to be objective, I asked my family to decide this issue. My wife said that the only genius thing I ever did in my life was to marry her. My mother said that I was indeed a genius and that I had the cutest knees when I was a baby. My 15 year old daughter just rolled her eyes and said "as if". My 13 year old son said that if genius is 90% persperation, then I'm an idiot. Looks like the nays have it.