Thread: Can you be a Genius without being smart?

what's your opinion?


I'm not doing particularly well in school at the moment, struggling to understand basic rules and apply the subject
On the other hand I experimented with perpetual motion and created several machines to this effect when I was 12 (sadly I did a bit of internet research and discovered what I made was simply a machine that converted gravitational power into usable energy and worse! it had already been done)
this kind of thing I do alot, I came up with the idea about some particle smaller than neutrons that was gravity, because I worked out just saying gravity exists is daft, there must be something that is gravity, just when I got really excited thinking I had revolutionized modern thinking the LHC came into view and after I researched it I discovered it had already been theorised





So what am I? genius or average joe? I lack in schooling smarts but I can come up with complex university standard theories that most people don't even think about. personally I think (as modestly as is possible) I'm a theoretical genius, I think on a completely different level to your average person which means I come up with theories I shouldn't even know yet, and also means I struggle with the normal basics






Also just a miniquestion
How do you personally define genius?

I accidentally pressed yes. Sorry. I personally believe that having a high IQ has F-A to do with being a genius, look at Einstein. IQ around 160 about the time of making Special relativity? Flippin heck, look how that was effective. Then look at Stephen Hawking, nearly double that and he still hasn't come up with something totally earth shattering. I believe being a genius requires having the balls to have thought up something brilliant and then having balls of steel that you have even if by most standards it seems a load of crap.

If you are coming up with ideas like that, having never encountered the theories in the first place. I'd say you are a genius. Not all geniuses are brilliant smart people though. Most are clumsy nobodies. But its those clumsy nobodies that revolutionise the world, for the better of course.

I also thought of a lot of stuff before reading about it. I am not sure if it is that uncommon. The trick is in demonstrating it convincingly and having others confirm it.

I correctly guessed the mechanism for mutation, quantized vortices in superfluids and lots of other stuff. I don't think it is that uncommon if you are mildly intelligent and have a real interest in a subject.

I don't think we know enough about the brain to be able to define intelligence or genius in a way that allows us to make valid comparisons between people. I don't doubt that there are differences, but we simply don't know how to measure them. IQ tests are bunk, in my opinion.

I don't know where in the world you live Booms, but public school systems in the states fall far short of fostering the right learning environment for every person. Don't let it get you down.

"Sometimes"

IQ does measure a mind's catalog of core tools, especially regarding puzzle solving. And I think it's fair that time is a factor. Time is always a factor in life.

I think there are different kinds of genius. One kind synthesizes. For example by puzzling together two theories so they not only fit but form a new theory greater than the parts. Another kind is simply inventive - it crystallizes something out of the blue and grows a working mountain of that - Steve Jobs of Apple Computer for example. Another kind is the rolling genius, as in "on a roll". These minds engage clustered problems in such a way that one elegant solution renders further solutions obvious. Our own William McCormick for example. I think there are many kinds of genius, as there are many kinds of problem.

Genius may be methodically invoked, like "let's apply lateral thinking to this".

Finally, as KALSTER said, ideas don't count if they won't fly. Even with a brilliant idea one may have to crank the engine like a maniac to get it started. So the manic masquerades as genius, and practically is.