Genius

Genius - “An exceptional creative power”.  
Quoting wise sayings of others infers that the person they are quoting is or was a genius.  
What made them so smart?   Where did they get their intellect or special insights?
I like it when someone tells me what they think and not what someone else said.  A formal education does not make one a genius in my view.  We can cite numerous examples of people without a formal education that did great things and are today quoted.  Henry Ford is often quoted.  His genius was not learned from books.  He had no reference books to use when he built his first car.  I think it was his exceptional creative power.  Bill Gates was a college drop out.  He didn’t learn his skill from books since what he created didn’t exist.  He was another person who had/has exceptional creative powers.  We call people like this a genius.  There are many inventors who fall into this category.  

There are times when we make a statement and it is questioned, i.e., what is your source?  What would be our reaction if the person said: “The source is me.  I know I am right in what I say.”  Would that statement be accepted?  I doubt it.  

Taking an IQ test and getting a score of “genius” does not make one a genius in my view.  I know some IQ Genius’s.  They are book smart, know how to take tests and can follow instructions, but their creative powers are lacking.   

An example is my, now deceased brother-in-law.  He never went to college, but became a machinist.  He later took over the firm where he worked.   He lacked engineering skills and went to night school to learn Algebra and read engineering drawings.   He built a thriving business.  The key to his success was his creative mechanical genius and that he took care of his employees.  When times were bad, he dipped into his own money to keep people he valued on the payroll.  He built (perhaps the very first) riding grass mower.  It was crude, but it worked.  It was later improved on by other manufacturers.  His hobby was motorcycles and antique cars.  Since parts were no longer available for these old cars, he made the parts.  When he lost his leg and his left arm was lame due to a motorcycle accident, he created the means to ride them and drive the cars with his handicap.  
He was on the board of directors of the main hospital in town as well as other corporations.  He didn’t have academic credentials, but what he had was practical experience that others lacked.  He was a mechanical genius.  He was also honored by the Masons with a 33rd degree - the highest degree attainable.  His name is now among other greats of the past. He enjoyed working and was often told to “slow down”.  He didn’t want to slow down doing what he enjoyed doing.  When he passed, he left his wife with a substantial inheritance.  His legacy is still felt to this day.

Where does this genius come from?  I don’t know.  I think of writers who became famous when their book(s) became top sellers.  After that, comments they made were quoted.  If they had made the same comments before achieving fame, would they have been quoted?  I doubt it, yet they had the creative genius before the fame.  

IMV, Betty has a genie inside her.  Is it instinct?  What is the origin of this sense of creativity?  Recognizing genius is difficult since we have a tendency to discount the creativity of the person based on their current status.   

What is your opinion?

Betty is indeed a genius. I quote her all the time. I remember learning from Betty that she attended college; I believe her major was English - not that her education had anything do do with her smarts.

Henry Ford? I don't know. This was the man who extimated his sales by weighing stacks of invoices and sales contracts. He would do the math for one stack, then assume that all stacks of the same weight had the same figures and totals. (My source for that bit was my professor of 20th Century American History at Lamar University, late 1970's)

How do you define "genius"? If it is about making a certain score on a test, one would need to know which test, and how it was "skewed," for most intelligence tests are. Studies have shown that the questions generally favor white males, with the questions using incidents and cultural references which would be more readily available to that group. (My source? The textbook for my Secondary Education course in Tests and Measurements - same school)

There are different kinds of genius. Mathematical genius has to do with being able to use numbers and the ability to perform complex operations, and the ability to use that skill in solving scientific problems, often involving a grasp of physics. Calculus, for example, is a numerical language, and those who have mastered it - like Einstein for instance, can use it to explore concepts that the rest of us cannot fathom (and Eistein failed the 8th grade)

Business acumen is another kind of genius, also dealing with numbers, but in a totally different framework which involves an understanding of finance and the sociology of sales as well as the psychology of potential customers - the sciences of buying and selling both goods and people.

Creative genius is something different altogether, and creativity can take on many forms, from telling stories with an archetypal significance, including animal fables, for example - and one of Betty's many areas of genius. She also has a deep understanding of the creative forces of Nature in general - a living with the earth rather than in opposition to it, which is why she is as much a plant whisperer as an animal whisperer - an intuitive genius which inspires her writing. The ability to write creatively is closely tied, too, to a love of reading, which translates into that ability to use words in a way that communicates those soul messages to her readerswith that clarity we enjoy in her work. Intuition is a form of genius that is seen more often in women, I think, than in men.

I liked IQ measuring because mine was high, 140.  Big things were expected from me .

I started strong but turned my life over to a husband at age 21 and it was downhill from there, loss of IQ points for each year of marriage.

I feel I lose IQ points when I watch TV. I'm not joking. I think one of the reasons we're losing our edge to other countries is because we watch so much TV (6 hrs/day avg, according to stats I've read), and so much of that TV is so very bad.

My scores were high, too. Higher than my brothers. My parents were upset and embarrassed. Girls were not supposed to be smart.

In that same tests and measurements class, one day we took a test that was skewed in favor of urban blacks. We all failed it, including the woman sitting next to me - an African American woman about my age (mid-thirties as opposed to late teens.) We teased her about Beaumont, Texas not being "urban" enough for her to be able to pass the test.

LC wrote:

I feel I lose IQ points when I watch TV. I'm not joking. I think one of the reasons we're losing our edge to other countries is because we watch so much TV (6 hrs/day avg, according to stats I've read), and so much of that TV is so very bad.

Agreed. This is getting scary, LC  

What kind of a test was it (subject matter) that was skewed to urban blacks? What kind of questions were on it?

Back to tv.  I agree that tv has dumbed down the United States.  Also, it has taken time from reading.  A recent intellectual study found that people are not reading literature even though they are reading "books." 

Books have dumbed down, from the beauty of language to the length of the book.  Just think, I was asked to add more "heat" to my novel, not change anything else.  "Heat" is far from intellectual, but it's what sells.

When's the last time you read a book that required searching for the meaning of a word or the source of a quote or reference?  One could previously become educated by a broad range of reading material.  Today, vampires are the main topic or ways to murder and/or seduce.

It's no wonder the savagery in the world continues.  Those countries that should be leading don't have the intelligence left in the population to propose solutions to problems - just blame and political innuendo.

Oh that same intellectual study - I'll look up the name if you wish - said poetry reading was going downhill too.  After all, poetry requires some imagination beyond the printed word.  It might have been the National Endowment for the Arts.

LC wrote:

What kind of a test was it (subject matter) that was skewed to urban blacks? What kind of questions were on it?

Don't recall in detail. Failed the thing 35 years ago. I seem to remember it being about defining terms and phrases used in communities like Harlem. Multiple choice answers.

9/28/2013

                 I read many years ago maybe 20 that TV could be an educational tool, I think so.
                 I have learned so many things watching HGTV from re-doing your home to some of
                 the most awesome recipes.

                 Speaking of genius how's about many of the former film stars who had the ambition
                 since they were a child to be a film star and create their own images not many people
                 can do that....

                                                                         Cheers....Joe...

Interesting comments.  You have touched on what I was trying to ascertain and that is:  What do you think genius is?

Well!  Then!  I read this post and went without ado out to the porch to tell my David that I was a genius. 
We have French doors that go out to our screened-in porch and I opened them both so I could make a grand entrance. 
He looked at me and said, "What has happened."

I said, "I came to tell you that I am a genius."

I thought he looked a little queer...."I knew that, but what has happened to your head!" said he.

I took a step forward and my head stuck between the door frames...

"You have a swellen head," he said. 
I said, "That should be swollen!"

He said, "It is."

When I was 15 years old and had first come to live with George and Barbara Anderson, no one knew where to send for my school records.  Because of you age, people considered I should be a freshman in school.  Without records, I was given the IQ test.  So many things that people take for granted are included in that test.  A person like me, who had no social skills, was graded very low, indeed.  I was considered borderline retarded.  It hurt my ego to hear that diagnosis...but, I knew in my heart that I was not retarded....
What a blow to my ego that was, though, and after the sexual abuse, I felt even less that I did before....if that was possible. 

When Abe says, "No matter the question, Love is the answer." he is correct...in my humble opinion. 

It seems so simplistic, but in the area of human relations, it is anything but simple. 

Instinct has nothing to do with it.
Love,
Betty

I don't know that I could define genius regardless of how hard I tried. I'm pretty sure that most IQ tests are not a good indicator, because mine were always scary high, and hell, I've done so very little with my life. I had a successful career as an Industrial Engineer, and over 15 years with the same company I managed to find new assembly methods and processes that saved them millions of dollars in man hours and waste. Figured out ways to increase productivity while decreasing the number of employees. No matter, it didn't stop them from downsizing me, so apparently I wasn't too smart. I've had a bit of success in the music business, with quite a lot of my songs recorded, but I was never smart enough, or whatever it took, to write a lot of really big hits. I think my books are well written and interesting, but apparently I'm not smart enough to market them well enough to attract a big publisher, or to sell enough that the income makes a difference in the way I live. I've been an above average athletic most of my life, but never even considered a professional career. Well, I actually did intend to give the senior pro bowling tour a shot, but about the time I hit 50, quadruple bypass came a'calling and that kind of ended that aspect. I can still bowl, but not with the needed endurance to compete. So, it appears my high IQ hasn't accounted for very much in the way of success, so even if the term genius might apply because of the scores, it certainly doesn't apply in the way I've put it into practice over the years. If I had to come up with a definition of what true genius is, I suppose I'd say it was knowing your limitations, and rising above them, of knowing how much you don't know, and finding a way to not only acquire more information but to figure out how to use that information in a way that it would help either yourself or someone else. I'm equally as certain that amassing large amounts of wealth doesn't require being a genius, so much as it requires that one has a total disregard for any person other than him or herself. One last thing. If one is a genius and doesn't know how to use that intelligence for the good of himself or others, then what damn good is it anyway?

Yes, Don, I know what you mean.  I have a list of "firsts" and "accomplishments" that made a difference, but not in a way that startled the world or created fame or fortune.  I was just not mediocre.  I was up there with the competent people.  Once I passed 55, no body cared at all and putting those skills to use became impossible.

I always wanted to write for a living.  I thought it would be my novels; but, like you, they haven't hit the big time though sales were steady.  Instead, I am earning a nice supplement to my income as a small town journalist (our circulation is 35,000 - which is a little more than just a small town).  I guess my IQ points can't be too low because I write on every subject, familiar or not, from medical to engineering!

Maybe genius has different levels from daily living (she's a genius at stretching a penny) to saving the world (negotiating in Syria).

To answer your question, Abe, I believe genius is learning the game that we begin to play when we are born and that ends when we die.  Some are more adept at the game than others but every one has to play.  The prizes are just as unequal as the contestants in the game of living.  What I have gotten for my best efforts is not what another might value.  The real winners are the ones who value what they have gotten from their life, be it a family that loves them, like me, or an amassed wealth in commodities.
The losers are the ones who do not know that life is the prize.
Love, Betty

Betty Fasig wrote:

To answer your question, Abe, I believe genius is learning the game that we begin to play when we are born and that ends when we die.  Some are more adept at the game than others but every one has to play.  The prizes are just as unequal as the contestants in the game of living.  What I have gotten for my best efforts is not what another might value.  The real winners are the ones who value what they have gotten from their life, be it a family that loves them, like me, or an amassed wealth in commodities.
The losers are the ones who do not know that life is the prize.
Love, Betty

This post is one of those "keepers," Betty

"Genius" is one of those words, like "hero" that have as many definitions as thre are people The way you express yourself is certainly a form of it.

And, as I've said before, you are one of my heroes, too,

Annie

Betty's genius shows.