Genius: Outside the box

Arthur Schopenhauer   (Public Domain)

According to Stephen Hawking, people with average intelligence can learn to think like a genius.

It’s not necessarily about IQ.  Although Mensa requires statistical qualification, i.e., scoring above “98 percent of the rest of the population,” Albert Einstein might not have fit into this category. 

Einstein might have come up with “a jillion other answers that would also work,” and might therefore have chosen the allegedly-wrong IQ responses.  Thinking outside the box, a true hallmark of genius, is not always statistically correct.

Psychology professor Keith Simonton states that geniuses tend to “launch their arrows into the unknown.”  Beginning with ideas rather than solutions, they wind up with both.  Their solutions, however, are often for problems “that others may not have even been aware of.”

Nineteenth-century genius Arthur Schopenhauer summed it up like this:  Talent hits a target no one else can hit.  Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Resources

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-genius/ 

Copyright June 14, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved