Who Is A Genius?

[Wewus432]

One definition of genius is the ability to learn, or the ability to learn from your mistakes. I started a thread in Roger Nichol's forum entitled Is Nika A Genius? Got some interesting replies. One person I think might be a genius is Steve Gibson. He's the guy who wrote the program ZoneAlarm and gave it to the world. That guy is so far ahead of anyone else in regard to computer security it's amazing. Name someone you think is a "genius".

[Uh Clem]

By that definition, my dog is a genius. His name is Sr. Pepe. I think the definition needs a high-pass filter.

[Tedster]

There are a few here on the forum. I'm not one. I make no pretenses. There's one guy, in particular, that fits perfectly the "tortured genius" profile. Suffers for his art. When other topics come up, this guy can ask the most astoundingly insightful questions, showing a very high degree of being well-read on many frontiers, as well as analytical thought. This person in particular reminds me of an old high school friend. Dropped out of high school, but could discuss things on an even keel (or better, perhaps) with someone with a PhD in, say, philosophy (is that redundant?...PhD in philosophy?) or eastern religion. And yet, this guy to this day is basically broke, never finished school. Could have had the world by the testicles, I suppose...if that had been his goal. I'll leave you all to guess the identity of the forum member of whom I speak.

[natty fred]

mmm, me thinks the definition is maybe a little broad too,but I think there are different types of genius: musical genius, computer genius, etc and genius seems to come with it's baggage in various forms as Tedster mentions one is the "tortured genius", another is the "hopeless genius", someone who has serious brilliance in one area and all the skills of a 5yr old with everything else.... FWIW, I think I had the misfortune to marry a "hopeless" musical genius.....(then again, that could just be a symptom of my "drummer lust" :D ) who is "our" genius, mmmm not sure, could be a couple.... peace, natty [img]http://www.theunholytrinity.org/cracks_smileys/contrib/fk/butterfly.gif[/img]

[Tedster]

Geez, Natty, what is it with you women and "drummer lust"? And all the time, some of us poor misguided guys thought it was the "guitar guy" who got all the women. Then again, if that was true, it sure wasn't me getting all the women.

[Botch.]

There supposedly is a formula that roughly converts your SAT/ACT scores into your IQ, does anyone know what it is? I'm kinda curious... :freak:

[Franknputer]

The answer is, of course, obvious... :D [img]http://www.craiganderton.com/craig.gif[/img]

[BP3]

Frank, all the BeOS references are gone. What gives??? I'll tell you one thing, whoever was responsible for the death of BeOS is certainly [b]not[/b] a genius.

[Franknputer]

I hear that, TinderArts. I just wanted a change of pace. This better? :D

[Charlie-brm]

Genius is not something you can learn. Genius applies to people that make quantum leaps in practical thinking. I don't think someone who comes up with far out concepts or a hypothesis that can't be applied is actually a genius. Neither do I think studying and working hard is enough to turn someone into a genius, unless their method of thinking takes that leap into a realm the rest of us will never experience. Actually I don't think Einstein was a genius and from what I've read, he wouldn't say he deserved the title either. I know that opinion would piss off some of my friends who idolize Einstein, but I do think he was invaluable to accelerating the investigation of the universe, even if some of his suppositions are likely to be proved wrong in the future. On the other hand, you have people like Alan Turing. He was quiet and painfully shy but he has been described by co-workers as coming up with answers to problems in ways the co-workers admit they never would have thought of. Not eventually, but never in their lifetime. And he was crystal clear in his certainty and how to apply the solution. It just took some time to explain it to others. In physical performance, you might come up with people who leave the rest of us scratching our heads, when even the experts still don't know how they did it. When they came out with G-force meters and recording devices small enough to be mounted in a car, some investigators thought it would be interesting to record top F1 drivers running the same course and print out the G-force patterns to compare them. Even though he was done with his racing career by this point, Jackie Stewart ran competitive times lap after lap with such smooth transitions in G-force that it looked like a sunday drive compared to the other drivers. (I remember seeing the plots. It was like daisy petals compared to rose petals.) A lot easier on the car and driver too. It couldn't be taught, that's just the way he was.

[Hippie]

I believe Dr. Cornel West is a genius. Check him speaking if ever presented the chance. He will have you on the edge of your seat with his words. He covers 'big' topics of race, religion, etc. He has an insight on these tough topics that is fair & truly mind blowing. Matt

[not coaster MODERATOR]

Everybody has that one little area where they shine. In my case, I can take a very messy garage and make it extremely clean in 8 hours. I have this uncanny sense of garage organization. There's a lot of smart guys on these boards. Dorothy says that maybe someday the wizard will give me a brain too. I can tell you all about cereal.. :D :D

[jnorman]

geez - marcus aurelius, newton, einstein, richard feynman, leonardo da vinci, neils bohr, beethoven - there are many others. the human race has been blessed with a number of incredible polymaths which it has abused and ignored while they were alive, only to recognize them hundreds of years later.

[alphajerk]

nika a genius? muahahahaha ROTFLMFAOWPIMP... :rolleyes: yeah right.

[Dak Lander]

HEY!!! ALL YOU HONKEYS, REDNECKS, YAHOOS & OTHERS!!! shit...was honkeys spelled right??? In my humble opinion, The Tedster is THE genius on these forums. I doesn't matter what the the topic or concern. The Tedster is always calm, cool & collected. His input is always "bonafied", with no prejudice, avarice or other detectable bigotism. The Tedster is definitely one person on these forums that I would be privileged to meet. There are others but I kinda envy Ani'Fa that pleasure. Hey Cereal old buddy. you coudn't clean up MY garage in a week. I guarantee it. You'd star hyperventilating as soon as you saw how bad it is.

[Dwarf]

[quote]Originally posted by TheWewus: [b]One person I think might be a genius is Steve Gibson. He's the guy who wrote the program ZoneAlarm and gave it to the world. That guy is so far ahead of anyone else in regard to computer security it's amazing. Name someone you think is a "genius".[/b][/quote]Not to take anything away from Steve Gibson, but he didn't write Zone Alarm. He wrote Spinrite and a bunch of other stuff, but ZA he didn't write. He does, however, really seem to like the product. -- Rob

[Wewus432]

Yeah you're right. I just heard him recommending it so much I thought he wrote it. Thanks for the correction. Anyway, the guy is super intelligent. I've read a little bit of his work on the internet and he has a gift for what he does.

[Curve Dominant]

The Curve Dominant MP Genius Foundation Awards go to (in no particular order): Paul Frindle Craig Anderton George Massenberg Nika Aldrich Fletcher Drew Harrison Eve-Anna Manley & Hutch Julian Standen ...sorry if I left anyone out.

[Duhduh]

Me!

[alphajerk]

sound more like the ass kiss awards to me.

[Philip OKeefe]

There's so many definitions of "genius" that you would really have to look at it from a multitude of directions... If you're talking about IQ, I (regretfully and with as much humility as I can muster...) must admit to qualifying... I won't name numbers unless pressed, but let's just say it's over the 145 threshold. I hate it. Why? Well, I guess that was a bit strong. I USED to hate it, or at least certain aspects of it. Mostly this: being told "you're so smart" all the time as a kid and being expected to "live up to my potential". I can't tell you how initially unhappy my parents were that I decided to do what I do instead of going to Harvard or something and become a lawyer... The other thing that sucks is this: When you're told all your life that "you're so smart you can do anything you want to do - whatever you decide to put your mind to", then how in the heck do you decide WHAT to do? Having relatively limitless options is not strictly liberating, it's also somewhat confining within the realm of one's own mind. The other thing I find is that I tend to be extremely hard on myself. I tend to hold myself to nearly unattainable goals and unrealistic standards of performance. That can be extremely depressing. I don't know if that comes along with the intelligence or with the increased expectations heaped upon intelligent children by parents, teachers and friends. Maybe it's a bit of both. But I have noticed it's a fairly common trait in most of the extremely intelligent people I've known. But I consider IQ to be a fairly poor criteria for judging genius. There's lots of people who have very high IQ's who are total screwups with their lives. And there's people who have fairly ordinary IQ test results who have shown exteremly extraordinary talents. I think Cereal may well be on to something when he says we're all blessed with certain gifts and talents. Maybe I was just lucky that one of my talents was reading. I was reading college level by the time I was in 4th grade. And that, coupled with a good memory and retention skills probably helped me do well on those tests. But that doesn't explain my old Psychologist's statement that I had the best problem solving skills she'd ever seen. Who knows? I can't figure it out... ;) :D Being intelligent doesn't always equate with being a fair minded human being... or being motivated... or having love in your heart for your fellow man. All of which are things I personally consider to be more important than intelligence alone. Jnorman's list looks pretty good to me. And I totally agree that there's lots of other people, several of whom are on these forums, who probably also qualify in addition to what's on that list. Since this is a music related board, I'd like to add a few of my favorite musical geniuses, listed in no particular order: Lennon / McCartney George Gershwin JS Bach Cole Porter Brian Wilson Rivers Cuomo (no, not a typo) Miles Davis Burt Bacharach Plus scores of others. I hate them all because I will never be that good. And I, somewhere in the back of by sick, bright mind, expect myself to be. :( Yet I love them even more than I hate them for all the beauty that they have brought to my world. Sounds like a Elvis Costello line off his new album... "I love you as much as I hate your guts" or something like that. Add Elvis Costello to the "genius" list. :) Please forgive me if this came off as fat headed or pretentious. That was certainly not my intent. I'm just blowing off steam after a 12 hour day in the studio... where I know I failed to measure up to Rivers Cuomo's latest album. ;)

[thisDude]

Phil said: [quote] I hate it. Why? Well, I guess that was a bit strong. I USED to hate it, or at least certain aspects of it. Mostly this: being told "you're so smart" all the time as a kid and being expected to "live up to my potential". I can't tell you how initially unhappy my parents were that I decided to do what I do instead of going to Harvard or something and become a lawyer... The other thing that sucks is this: When you're told all your life that "you're so smart you can do anything you want to do - whatever you decide to put your mind to", then how in the heck do you decide WHAT to do? Having relatively limitless options is not strictly liberating, it's also somewhat confining within the realm of one's own mind. [/quote]Agreed. I was in a "gifted program" from 3rd grade until I graduated high school. It was cool... little or no homework, field trips every month, called teachers by their first names, but I think the curriculum that was designed to foster "alternative thinking" instilled a bad work ethic in a lot of us. I had the same 40-50 kids in all of my classes, outside of electives, for the better part of my schooling. When I look back, it seems like half of the kids are dead, in jail, or total F#*k-ups, and the other half are programmers or researchers. The whole experience left me a little jaded towards the public education system. We were tested so often, sometimes it seemed like we were part of some kind of experiment like [b]The Secret of NIMH[/b] . Well... they say the line between genius and insanity is a blurry one. Here's a good link to measure your insanity. [url=http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1641/iqown.html]IQ TEST[/url]

[Wewus432]

You know what Phil, you didn't fool me for a minute. I knows who the smart people are around here and I think of them as my people. I always like to read your post because you actually know what you're talking about most of the time. There are two great forces in the world though, Intelligence and Power. This is the greatest quandry to me that they are NOT the same thing.

[Bob Keelan]

well in our little world I've always been envious of the minds of Les Paul & Leo Fender

[Tedster]

[quote]Originally posted by Franknputer: [b]The answer is, of course, obvious... :D [img]http://www.craiganderton.com/craig.gif[/img][/b][/quote]Brown noser... :D :D :D

[Tedster]

Thanks for the nomination, Dak, but, I truly feel that I'm not even close. Funny, intellect is a desirable quality, but, if I had to choose between intellect and wisdom, I'd choose wisdom every time. And, they are not the same thing by a long shot. As someone of ordinary intellect, perhaps I can strive to increase wisdom. "Oh, a wise guy...nyuk nyuk nyuk" -Jerome "Curly" Howard

[Sylver]

[quote]Originally posted by Cereal: [b]Everybody has that one little area where they shine. In my case, I can take a very messy garage and make it extremely clean in 8 hours. I have this uncanny sense of garage organization. [/b][/quote]There is a case of beer and a well cooked meal(From any kind of grilled animal to vegen, upon request. I'm versitle!) with your name on it waiting in South East Pa. Oh, the studio is in a seperate part of the garage. Does that count too? Well, let me know when you're ready. By the way, those of you who want to know your IQ, there's a test here: http://www.emode.com/ I took it and failed.

[miroslav]

[quote]Originally posted by alphajerk: [b]sound more like the ass kiss awards to me.[/b][/quote]HAW HAW HAW...ROTFLMAO...alpha, you sure can spot it!!! :thu:

[Mark Zeger]

[quote]Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe: [b]Since this is a music related board, I'd like to add a few of my favorite musical geniuses, listed in no particular order: Lennon / McCartney George Gershwin JS Bach Cole Porter Brian Wilson Rivers Cuomo (no, not a typo) Miles Davis Burt Bacharach [/b][/quote]Add Igor Stravinsky, Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein, and Steven Sondheim, and you've covered the 20th Century pretty well (excepting Bach, of course). But Rivers Cuomo?

[Sylver]

[quote]Originally posted by Sylver: [b] [quote]Originally posted by Cereal: [b]Everybody has that one little area where they shine. In my case, I can take a very messy garage and make it extremely clean in 8 hours. I have this uncanny sense of garage organization. [/b][/quote]There is a case of beer and a well cooked meal(From any kind of grilled animal to vegen, upon request. I'm versitle!) with your name on it waiting in South East Pa. Oh, the studio is in a seperate part of the garage. Does that count too? Well, let me know when you're ready. By the way, those of you who want to know your IQ, there's a test here: http://www.emode.com/ I took it and failed.[/b][/quote]Thye have a bunch of other tests in here. One is "Who's you inner rock star. I apparently am Lenny Kravitz.