This is how I hear very talented physicists describe themselves and others in that category. Stephen Hawking did not achieve in spite of his condition, but rath

This is how I hear very talented physicists describe themselves and others in that category. Stephen Hawking did not achieve in spite of his condition, but rather because of it. It forced him to develop a very specific set of visualization skills likely unique to him. Feynman had similar skills. There is a story in which he was once able to calculate something that took a presenter 6 months in a single night due to his better methods. Similarly he was once able to derive a strictly better model of some physical system (liquid hydrogren iirc) simply by going off of the obvious interacting forces.