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Just reducing malnutrition has a huge effect, as does cutting exposure to lead. And the ending idea of there being more geniuses, just that they're unrecognize
by lkbm 12y ago
Just reducing malnutrition has a huge effect, as does cutting exposure to lead.
And the ending idea of there being more geniuses, just that they're unrecognized--are they? We've been accumulating knowledge for a long time. Sure, in the 1500s there were people who were top of the class in physics, chemistry, and biology. I'm sure many, many people here know (or could readily learn) those as well as the great polymaths, and come up with novel new-to-the-1500s-models ideas. But physics, for one, has gone so far beyond what we understood back then.
You're impressed by people inventing calculus? Yeah, it's pretty impressive. It's also something a fairly intelligent person these days can at least _understand_ as a young teen. Do you have any idea what we've developed to model modern theoretical physics?
- kazinator 12y agoI studied calculus on my own in high school because there was no course in it. After learning about integration for a few days, I reinvented the idea of repeatedly doing a definite integral over several different variables of a multivariate function, and within minutes confirmed the formula for the volume of a sphere from its radius. Sometimes people just need a hint in the right direction.
- ethanbond 12y agoWell calculus in particular (in my opinion, at least) actually makes a TON of intuitive sense. The calculations are obviously impossible for someone who hasn't been introduced to algebra, but the intuition is just as simple – at least, as you said – when given a push in the right direction.