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Somewhat similar stories with eg Grothendieck and Kaczynski. As the article points out, one of the properties of genius is that it can’t really be deliberately

• vijayr02 7y ago
  Reminded me of https://magazine.atavist.com/promethea-unbound-child-genius-montana https://magazine.atavist.com/promethea-unbound-child-genius-... I think future generations will see our inability to provide opportunity to genius to rise up as a criminal waste of potential. I sometimes idly speculate how different human society would be if we raised our offspring communally, with every child given the same (high) opportunity to express their capabilities. As usual Asimov has a riff on this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(short_story) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(short_story) - worth reading the original story though...
• jfoutz 7y ago
  > one of the properties of genius is that it can’t really be deliberately focused i think this is true. I think there is a statement that is a bit more crisp, genius focuses intensely on what it must. I, an average person, can focus or not on whatever. perhaps i'm a genius. I'm not a fool, but i'm also not pushing the boundaries. Your phrasing gives me room to think i'm a genius. (i'm not). Some folks, on the other hand, get hung up on details. And to those details matter a lot. They don't have a choice, in much the same way i don't have a choice about breathing. I'll do it if i want to or not. Genius is obsession. sometimes that obsession leads somewhere and we all benefit. but usually, it's just crazy guy ranting about squirrels.