What contrast geniuses to an average person? Like Isaac Newton for instance.
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Depends on the context. But usually speaking, one is very very smart. The other is average smart
A good part of so called geniuses are probably just averagely intelligent people that happened to end up in perfect circumstances. A poor farm boy in the 16th century is unlikely to have the opportunity to make a contribution to science, even if he’s the smartest in the world. Being born into riches and having time to spare, as well as being surrounded by academia, helps…
And some people are just really smart, and also have the interest and passion to pursue a scientific path. Overall, I’m less inclined to think they were godly intelligent as much as they were passionately obsessed. Being dedicated and able to spend *a lot* of time on something can lead to quite amazing things.
I think even the most average of people could amount to genius level achievements, if we weren’t so lazy. And I don’t mean this as if we even have a choice. It’s just the way humans are. Almost no one has the stamina to work single mindedly on one single thing for 12-16 hours a day over several years.
I mean, is there anything you ever wanted to be good at? Let’s say, playing guitar? Maybe you went ahead and started practicing to get better. How much time per day did you spend on it? A couple of hours every other day? Why not 12 hours per day every day for several years? Because it’s not *that* important and it’s not *that* interesting. It doesn’t tickle your dopamine enough to keep you focused for more than that. You have a life to live and other important things to do. But imagine someone comes along who gets *endless* satisfaction from playing guitar. It’s aaaaall they wanna do. They forget to eat, they forget to socialize, just wanna play guitar all the time. Unless this person is particularly bad at music, they’ll likely reach some sort of “genius” status quite soon.
Capability. Usually of something with a mental component.
Your average person isn’t able to do what the geniuses can do in their field. Newton was able to write a book about calculous and figure out some of the basic laws of physics, while the average person cannot do that.
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