What's a Genius? Specialist or Well Rounded Skills? Can Athletes, Ballerinas, and Toilet Scrubbers Be Geniuses? Should We Excuse Geniuses for Being Jerks & Aloof? Were Jobs, Darwin, Leonardo Geniuses?
Description
The Best Paragraph I've Read:
"Let’s say there’s another pandemic. This time, a lethal disease spreads through contact with other people’s fecal matter. Precision toilet cleaning becomes a matter of life and death. In the wake of this pandemic, an aptitude test—callit the T.I.Q.—is developed to measure one’s ability to rotate brushes three-dimensionally inside holes. Kids who score highly are trained for the Toilet-Cleaning Olympiad, meant to keep the citizenry battle-ready and internationally competitive. Eventually, the world crowns a toilet-cleaningchampion—not surprisingly, someone with an off-the-charts T.I.Q. This person is the very best at a skill that is crucial for the survival of humanity. Are they a genius?"
This paragraph comes from the New Yorker. The article is titled: "So You Want to Be A Genius." The article is written by S.C. Cornell. You can read the full article here:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/23/the-genius-myth-helen-lewis-book-review
Zac & Don discuss what genius is. Can they be recognized in society? They wonder if a genius is a specialist or have multiple skills. Can genius be taught to non geniuses?
United States
