Ryan Junee

Hi Ryan

In considering what makes a genius and what separates the intelligent from the genius, I believe it's about the difference between potential and accomplishment at a very high level, achieving something that changes the world.

A child tested to have a very high IQ is not a 'genius', as the newspapers inevitably like to badge them, until they perform and achieve. It's only a potential to achieve until then. So Mozart was undoubtedly a child genius.

Einstein was also an indisputable genius but he visualised solutions and didn't think words and numbers were important.

Edison held 1093 patents and gave his workers 'ideas' quotas. He thought 'production' of ideas was important. "In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence."

You'll find the above in Michael Michalko, Thinking Like a Genius: Eight strategies used by the super creative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison (New Horizons for Learning) as seen at http://www.newhorizons.org/wwart_michalko1.html, (June 15, 1999) This article first appeared in THE FUTURIST, May 1998

Regards

Sylvia in UK