Bozur
Amicus
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Post by Bozur on Feb 19, 2009 19:33:17 GMT -5
Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned?
time.com — Is it possible to cultivate genius? Could we somehow structure our educational and social life to produce more Einsteins and Mozarts — or, more urgently these days, another Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes? More… (General Sciences)
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Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned? By John Cloud Friday, Feb. 13, 2009
Albert Einstein.
Is it possible to cultivate genius? Could we somehow structure our educational and social life to produce more Einsteins and Mozarts — or, more urgently these days, another Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes?
How to produce genius is a very old question, one that has occupied philosophers since antiquity. In the modern era, Immanuel Kant and Darwin's cousin Francis Galton wrote extensively about how genius occurs. Last year, pop-sociologist Malcolm Gladwell addressed the subject in his book Outliers: The Story of Success.
The latest, and possibly most comprehensive, entry into this genre is Dean Keith Simonton's new book Genius 101: Creators, Leaders, and Prodigies (Springer Publishing Co., 227 pages). Simonton, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, is one of the world's leading authorities on the intellectually eminent, whom he has studied since his Harvard grad-school days in the 1970s. (See pictures of Albert Einstein.)
For most of its history, the debate over what leads to genius has been dominated by a bitter, binary argument: is it nature or is it nurture — is genius genetically inherited, or are geniuses the products of stimulating and supportive homes? Simonton takes the reasonable position that geniuses are the result of both good genes and good surroundings. His middle-of-the-road stance sets him apart from more ideological proponents like Galton (the founder of eugenics) as well as revisionists like Gladwell who argue that dedication and practice, as opposed to raw intelligence, are the most crucial determinants of success.
Too often, writers don't nail down exactly what they mean by genius. Simonton tries, with this thorough, slightly ponderous, definition: Geniuses are those who "have the intelligence, enthusiasm, and endurance to acquire the needed expertise in a broadly valued domain of achievement" and who then make contributions to that field that are considered by peers to be both "original and highly exemplary." (Read TIME's 2007 cover story, "Are We Failing Our Geniuses?")
Fine, now how do you determine whether artistic or scientific creations are original and exemplary? One method Simonton and others use is to add up the number of times an individual's publications are cited in professional literature — or, say, the number of times a composer's work is performed and recorded. Other investigators count encyclopedia references instead. Such methods may not be terribly sophisticated, but the answer they yield is at least a hard quantity.
Still, there's an echo-chamber quality to this technique: genius is what we all say it is. Is there a more objective method? There are IQ tests, of course, but not all IQ tests are the same, which leads to picking a minimum IQ and calling it genius-level. Also, estimates of the IQs of dead geniuses tend to be fun, but they are based on biographical information that can be highly uneven. (Read TIME's 1999 cover story about the "I.Q. Gene.")
So Simonton falls back on his "intelligence, enthusiasm, and endurance" formulation. But what about accidental discoveries? Simonton mentions the case of biologist Alexander Fleming, who, in 1928, "noticed quite by chance that a culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold. Around the mold was a halo." Bingo: penicillin. But what if you had been in Fleming's lab that day and noticed the halo first? Would you be the genius?
Recently, the endurance and hard work part of the achievement equation has gotten a lot of attention, and the role of raw talent and intelligence has faded a bit. The main reason for this shift in emphasis is the work of Anders Ericsson, a friendly rival of Simonton's who teaches psychology at Florida State University. Gladwell featured Ericsson's work prominently in Outliers. (See the top 10 non-fiction books of 2008.)
Ericsson has become famous for the 10-year rule: the notion that it takes at least 10 years (or 10,000 hours) of dedicated practice for people to master most complex endeavors. Ericsson didn't invent the 10-year rule (it was suggested as early as 1899), but he has conducted many studies confirming it. Gladwell is a believer. "Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good," he writes. "It's the thing you do that makes you good."
Simonton rather dismissively calls this the "drudge theory." He thinks the real story is more complicated: deliberate practice, he says, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for creating genius. For one thing, you need to be smart enough for practice to teach you something. In a 2002 study, Simonton showed that the average IQ of 64 eminent scientists was around 150, fully 50 points higher than the average IQ for the general population. And most of the variation in IQs (about 80%, according to Simonton) is explained by genetics. (See pictures of Bobby Fischer, chess prodigy.)
Personality traits also matter. Simonton writes that geniuses tend to be "open to experience, introverted, hostile, driven, and ambitious." These traits too are inherited — but only partly. They're also shaped by environment.
So what does this mean for people who want to encourage genius? Gladwell concludes his book by saying the 10,000-hour rule shows that kids just need a chance to show how hard they can work; we need "a society that provides opportunities for all," he says. Well, sure. But he dismisses the idea that kids need higher IQs to achieve success, and that's just wishful thinking. As I argued here, we need to do more to recognize and not alienate high-IQ kids. Too often, principals hold them back with age-mates rather than letting them skip grades.
Still, genius can be very hard to discern, and not just among the young. Simonton tells the story of a woman who was able to get fewer than a dozen of her poems published during her brief life. Her hard work availed her little — but the raw power of her imagery and metaphor lives on. Her name? Emily Dickinson. www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879593,00.html?iid=digg_share
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Post by chalkedon on Feb 20, 2009 4:19:49 GMT -5
It can be learned...Most if not all geniuses had knowledge of Ancient Greek..
Including the 25 yr old founder of facebook..what does that tell you ?
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Post by chalkedon on Feb 20, 2009 4:24:26 GMT -5
Aåé ï èåïò ï ìÝãáò ãåùìåôñåé ôü óýìðáí "Ôhe great god always applies geometry to everything", ð = 3,1415926... Aåé ï èåïò ï ìÝãáò ãåùìåôñåé ôü óýìðáí 3 letters 1 letter 4 letters 1 letter 5 letters 9 letters 2 letters 6 letters en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_phrasesJust goes to show how the real genuses were back a couple thousand yrs ago. Today we are nothing compared to them..
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Post by rusebg on Feb 20, 2009 5:28:59 GMT -5
Genius is born. What matters is to discover that feature that distinguishes the person from the others and giude him/her to develop what is inside. Like in football. Few geniuses - Maradona, Cruyff, Pele, Garrincha, many very good players and tons of others who will never make it to the exceptional level regardless how hard they practice.
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Post by chalkedon on Feb 20, 2009 5:33:24 GMT -5
For sports...I agree w/ Ruse.. But i also believe you can excersice the mind just as good as a rocket scientist. Unless you have a mental handicap.
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Post by rusebg on Feb 20, 2009 5:45:55 GMT -5
If you have that little thing inside that can make you genius. Otherwise you can just learn, study and contribute nothing.
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Post by lvl100 on Feb 20, 2009 6:18:03 GMT -5
For sports...I agree w/ Ruse.. But i also believe you can excersice the mind just as good as a rocket scientist. Unless you have a mental handicap. You can exercise as much as you want, the brain`s performances resemble pretty much with a computer processor. Your born with a certain performances and limits. Like a CPU who performs better or worst depending on which software you use. The brain`s performances depend also on how is used. (various techniques of logical learning or focusing will give superior uses of a brain` capacity) So yes , you can maximize the efficiency of your brain. But in the end, no Pentium 2 will transform in a Dual Core , and no average Joe will become Einstein ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Oh and sports are purely brain dependent too. Thats the reason you cant catch up with talented man no matter of your training. Muscles can be upgraded, your CPU not.
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Post by chalkedon on Feb 20, 2009 6:55:48 GMT -5
^^^ i dont believe that. If thats the case then that means certain races are smarter than others. So all the indians, japs, are smarter than the africans ? Just because there are more of them ?
The mind is a sponge...it just depends on what you decide to absorb
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Post by lvl100 on Feb 20, 2009 8:25:38 GMT -5
^^^ i dont believe that. If thats the case then that means certain races are smarter than others. So all the indians, japs, are smarter than the africans ? Just because there are more of them ? I dont know from where you draw this conclusion, but certainly not from my post. That doesnt refute my idea, but confirms it ;D A sponge can get so much |---| info ( or water or whatever) as his size and limitations allows it.
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Post by Alb_Korcar on Feb 20, 2009 11:38:58 GMT -5
some things ur just born with and cant be learned just improved with age
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Post by lvl100 on Feb 20, 2009 12:08:01 GMT -5
some things ur just born with and cant be learned just improved with age Actually everyone gets dumber with every single day that passes. The brain cells are the only cells in the body that dont reproduce. You are born with a lot of them, and then you just lose day by day without putting anything back. So from " raw computing power" point of view, the children are at the peak of brain activity. What makes adults better its that they use better cognitive mechanics to put that raw power to a better use.
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Post by Emperor AAdmin on Feb 20, 2009 14:59:28 GMT -5
I am fairly certain that genius is born versus made through intellectual improvements. Genius can be discovered, groomed and improved but it can not be artificially created out of nothing. I am sure there has to be some genetic basis for it. Furthermore what seems to lead towards this conclusion is the fact that all one need to analyze is certain geniuses and their life stories and the only conclusion as to how they would achieve what they did was to assume position of nature versus nurture. First lets see the definition A genius is an individual who successfully applies a previously unknown technique in the production of a work of art, science or calculation, or who masters and personalizes a known technique. A genius typically possesses great intelligence or remarkable abilities in a specific subject, or shows an exceptional natural capacity of intellect and/or ability, especially in the production of creative and original work, something that has never been seen or evaluated previously. Traits often associated with genius include strong individuality, imagination, uniqueness, and innovative drive[citation needed]. The term may be applied to someone who is considered gifted in many subjects[1] or in one subject. Although the term "genius" is sometimes used to denote the possession of a superior talent in any field, e.g. a particular sport or statesmanship, it has traditionally been understood to denote an exceptional natural capacity of intellect and creative originality in areas of art, literature, philosophy, music, language, science and mathematics[citation needed]. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniusnow lets see some Nobel laureates and other geniuses who do not fit the profile of being the best students or had limited resources or bad health yet still accomplished what they did (Tesla and Einstein quickly come to mind). ------- Wilhelm Röntgen
In 1865, he tried to attend the University of Utrecht without having the necessary credentials required for a regular student. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Conrad_R%C3%B6ntgen------- Pierre Curie
Born in Paris, France, Pierre was educated by his father, and in his early teens showed a strong aptitude for mathematics and geometry. By the age of 18 he had completed the equivalent of a higher degree, but did not proceed immediately to a doctorate due to lack of money. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Curie--------- Marie Curie
On both the paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvements in Polish national uprisings. This condemned each subsequent generation, including that of Maria and her elder sisters and brother, to a difficult struggle to get ahead in life.[7] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie----- Albert Einstein
n 1894, when Einstein was fifteen, his father's business failed, as DC had lost the War of Currents to alternating current (AC). In search of business, the Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and then, after a few months, to Pavia. During this time, Einstein wrote his first scientific work, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields".[8] Einstein had been left behind in Munich to finish high school, but in the spring of 1895, he withdrew to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note.
Rather than completing high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule (later Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH)) in Zürich, Switzerland. Lacking a school certificate, he was required to take an entrance examination, which he did not pass, although he got exceptional marks in mathematics and physics.[9] Einstein wrote that it was in that same year, at age 16, that he first performed his famous thought experiment visualizing traveling alongside a beam of light (Einstein 1979). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein-------- Nikola Tesla
Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the Croatian village of Smiljan near Gospić, in the Lika region of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. According to legend, he was born precisely at midnight during an electrical storm.[citation needed]
Tesla then studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz (1875). While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. Some sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university at Graz.[16][17][18] However, the university says that he did not receive a degree and did not continue beyond the first semester of his third year, during which he stopped attending lectures.[19][20][21][22] In December 1878 he left Graz and broke all relations with his family. His friends thought that he had drowned in Mura. He went to Maribor, Slovenia, where he was first employed as an assistant engineer for a year. He suffered a nervous breakdown during this time. Tesla was later persuaded by his father to attend the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, which he attended for the summer term of 1880. Here he was influenced by Ernst Mach. However after his father died he left the university, having completed only one term.[23]
Tesla engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete books, supposedly having a photographic memory.[24] Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. During his early life, Tesla was stricken with illness time and time again. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla---------- Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel "The Iron Shovel" Edison, Jr. (1804–1896) (born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871). He considered himself to be of Dutch ancestry.[1] In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled." This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison-------- Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, the capital of Prussia at that time. He was the fourth of eleven children (five of them reached adulthood). Baptized 'Emanuel', he changed his name to 'Immanuel'[3] after learning Hebrew. In his entire life, he never traveled more than a hundred miles from Königsberg.[4] His father Johann Georg Kant (1682–1746) was a German craftsman from Memel, at the time Prussia's most northeastern city (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). His mother Anna Regina Porter (1697–1737), born in Nuremberg Regina Dorothea Reuter, was German [2], the daughter of a Scottish saddle maker and his father, Johann Georg Kant born in Memel, a harness maker like his grandfather (who had emigrated from Scotland) and his great grandfather before him [3]. Kant's grandfather immigrated from Scotland to East Prussia and even his father spelled their family name: "Cant." [4]. In his youth, Kant was a solid, albeit unspectacular, student. He was raised in a Pietist household that stressed intense religious devotion, personal humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. Consequently, Kant received a stern education – strict, punitive, and disciplinary – that preferred Latin and religious instruction over mathematics and science.[5] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant#Biography--------- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Finding himself utterly alone, since his father and uncle more or less disowned him, the teenaged Rousseau supported himself for a time as a servant, secretary, and tutor, wandering in Italy (Piedmont and Savoy) and France. During this time, he he lived on and off with De Warens, whom he idolized and called his "maman". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau#Biography------- Early life and career
Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. His mother Ana Débora, Miguel's second wife, died when Baruch was only six years old. Miguel was a successful importer/merchant and Baruch had a traditional Jewish upbringing; however, his critical, curious nature would soon come into conflict with the Jewish community. Wars with England and France took the life of his father and decimated his family's fortune but he was eventually able to relinquish responsibility for the business and its debts to his brother, Gabriel, and devote himself to philosophy and optics. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinoza#Early_life_and_career
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Post by rusebg on Feb 20, 2009 16:53:59 GMT -5
To put it short: Bulgars were geniuses who conquered almost the whole of the Balkans and some small minds try to deny it
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Post by lvl100 on Feb 20, 2009 18:50:45 GMT -5
To put it short: Bulgars were geniuses who conquered almost the whole of the Balkans and some small minds try to deny it Nice try Ruse, but we all know that Bulgars were no match for daco-moldovans. And even your small victories were only possible because daco-moldovans were to busy inventing for the humanity since ancient times : articulate speech, the wheel and intercontinental missiles. Ask Anitass he can tell you more about it.
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