I wonder about this, in that it's a common trope, yet it does not really seem affirmed by evidence. In seeking evidence, there's of course a major problem of bi

I wonder about this, in that it's a common trope, yet it does not really seem affirmed by evidence. In seeking evidence, there's of course a major problem of bias - yet presumably we'd expect some significant number of these lazy geniuses to achieve and garner some place in history yet they are conspicuously absent. When we think of individuals of substantial intellect there often tends to be an associated abnormally obsessive work ethic. Elon Musk is the typical example today who needs no further elaboration, but he's far from unique in this. Consider autodidacts such as Srinivasa Ramnujan - he not only greatly expanded mathematics but 'reinvented the wheel' in vast chunks of the field before he died... at the age of 32. Maybe the best example is Einstein, if only because he's been falsely spun as this sort of trope. I'm not sure where the myth of Einstein doing poorly at math at an early age came from, but it's fake. Instead of just being whimsical and bored, he sought out a challenge when his assigned courses were unable to provide that. A quote from Einstein when asked of this rumor is, "I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen, I had mastered differential and integral calculus." And his notes and works were prolific driven by another incredible work ethic. I think the wandering mind is certainly fair, but that wandering is often directed towards finding challenges to which an unprecedented level of energy is put forward, often for years or decades at a time, to great achievement.