Subject: How to be a Genius

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 22:01:44 +0300 (IDT)

I read in a quotations book once that Albert Einstein something like "Some
people think that Geniuses are differentiated from the common folk by
their intelligence. They are wrong. It is because of our character."

I was unable to find this quote online, but I agree with this quote. Many
people of high or even extremely high intelligence made little difference
to the world, yet some other people of lesser intelligence were considered
as geniuses by their contemporaries and by future generations.

Despite common belief, a person does not have a fixed character since
birth. Instead, he builds his character, and can add or restrain
new or unwanted character traits. So the question lies, what character
should persons of average or higher intelligence adopt so he will become a
genius?

Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. "I am a genius" - the first step is to say this sentence out loud. Show
the world you have the will to become one. Of course, some people do not
wish to become such, in that case they should skip the rest of this
article.

2. A "genius"-kind of curiousity - it's not that geniuses do not forget
things they have learned. They do. But a genius will not willingly deny
himself the oppurtunity of learning something new. Also, he will not try
to forget something that he has learned on purpose.

3. Ambition and Passion.

I can't think of anything else right now, but maybe I'll recall something
later. In any case, what are your thoughts about the question I raised?

	Shlomi Fish

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish        [email-masked] 
Home Page:         http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/
Home E-mail:       [email-masked]

A more experienced programmer does not make less bugs. He just realizes
what went wrong more quickly.

---

From: Oleg Goldshmidt <[email-masked]>
Date: 06 May 2001 22:55:26 -0400

Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]> writes:

> So the question lies, what character should persons of average or
> higher intelligence adopt so he will become a genius?

Catching up with the posts, some associations that popped into my
head...

1) We probably can throw away Bill Shockley's ideas: the guy who
   co-invented the transistor and got a Nobel prize for it, and then
   started a company that spun off Fairchild Semiconductor that gave
   birth to Intel, can arguably be considered a genius. He should have
   stuck to semiconductors, probably. Instead he got into various
   superiority theories, and in the 70ies started a sperm bank to
   breed geniuses.

2) Another great physicist, Yakov Zeldovich, once got a swivel chair
   as a birthday present from two of his students and
   colleagues. There was an inscription saying, "Genius is the ability
   to sit tight plus the ability to turn around fast." In Russian, it
   makes for a really good pun, meaning "Genius is diligence +
   agility" ("usidchivostj + povorotlivostj" for the sizeable
   Russian-speaking part of the list).

3) Closer to the computer world (hackers-il is supposed to be about
   computers somewhere, as I was reminded recently), there is a
   not-as-stupid-as-it-looks-the-first-time chapter in Cringely's
   "Accidental Empires" about the famous - or infamous - "bell
   curve". One of the ideas there is that to utilize you brain power
   to do something great for humanity (and thus to be widely
   recognized as a genius, by extension), one has to have something to
   prove. Cringely asserts, at least implicitly, that there are
   amazingly smart people who for one reason or another don't find
   themselves in situations where they need to prove (to themselves or
   others) how smart they are. Others have a constant urge to prove
   themselves, which helps the drive to "do stuff".

4) Maybe I should re-read Shlomi's original post, but I don't think
   a person could "adopt" a character. Nor do I think that one can 
   decide upon "becoming a genius in three years starting from next
   Monday." Sure, one could invest time and effort in many useful
   skills and develop character traits and abilities. For sure one
   can develop diligence and agility to a significant degree. However,
   if one is lucky in life, one will meet people who can do things one
   does excellently even better, and - that's what really counts - 
   effortlessly. 90% sweat and 10% luck notwithstanding. Your chance
   to beat these people for the genius title is telling them they have
   nothing to prove.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | [email-masked] 
"I'd rather write programs to write programs than write programs."