SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Awards ceremony, in Berlin, on Dec. 1, 2020. Image: AFP/Britta Pedersen
Genius isn’t dependent on IQ, but on the impact and duration of a person’s work. This vision proposed by a Yale professor challenges an idealized, historic vision of talent that is exclusively based on cognitive abilities.
Geniuses are regularly making headlines. While many researchers, authors and journalists are endlessly attempting to discover the secrets to their brilliance, trying to identify a particular gene or a habit to replicate in order to become a remarkable person, Craig Wright recently published a book that challenges our commonly held conceptions on the matter. The doctor in musicology sheds new light on a question we all ask ourselves: how can I become a genius?
In “The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit-Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness”), the author details 14 personality traits that geniuses have in common, including work ethic, resilience, originality, childlike imagination, insatiable curiosity, passion, rebelliousness, obsession and concentration.
But more surprisingly, the man who has spent more than 20 years studying the question has established a “formula”: G=SxNxD. It is neither a measure of intelligence, nor a measure of extraordinary mental powers, but a philanthropic vision of the person’s work. In its mathematical formula, G, the genius, equals the significance (S) of its impact, multiplied by the number of people reached (N) and the time duration of the impact (D). In other words, the more a work is known and the longer it lasts, the more its author will be considered a genius.
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
According to this definition, well-known figures such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates are among the happy few, as well as American singers Lady Gaga and Dolly Parton. Other talents, however remarkable their performance be, are excluded, such as swimmer Michael Phelps, despite being a highly decorated Olympian and medal-winning athlete because he hasn’t changed the sport of swimming or the Olympics.
Philanthropic genius
