The value judgments necessary to even construct the questions this essay tries to answer, kind of make the whole thing self-referential and self-fulfilling. Has

The value judgments necessary to even construct the questions this essay tries to answer, kind of make the whole thing self-referential and self-fulfilling. Has "genius" been adequately defined before getting started? Has "great work?" First we have the concept of an obsessive interest in something. But this apparently isn't "genius" unless the interest is in something that "matters." Matters to whom? The collecting of bus tickets matters to the bus ticket collector. People whose work a great number of people regard as great or genius, are by definition, working on things that a great number of people find important. Is it a voting thing, we need popularity? I thought our interest was disinterested. Besides which, being obsessed with any single thing sounds suspiciously like the idea of a "calling," which I finally had to reject because I never had one. I had more like 6 things I was interested in. And I've pursued each, in turn, with a varying amounts of effort that in some cases could've been characterized as obsessive, but only for a time. I went deep but not long. And I got surprisingly far in each, in a shorter period of time than most people. In short, I suppose I'm a generalist, or you could uncharitably say, a dilettante. Am I not a "genius?" Have I not done "great work?" You can't answer, because I'm not popular, and you've never heard of me. I just want to point out in particular, that you can't answer "no." Genius and great work are all over the place out there, and they don't need to be acknowledged to be genius.