Why Einstein is a “peerless genius” and Hawking is an “ordinary genius” | Albert-László Barabási

What do you think of this perspective on genius?

It’s interesting that society admires genius yet does everything it can to suppress the out of the box thinking that leads to genius

It’s crazy to think there’s probably an Einstein-level genius somewhere in the world RIGHT NOW but they’re working on a farm and have no way to express their immense gifts

“A talent hits the mark no else can hit but a genius hits the mark that no one else can see”

From a young age I was always fascinated by geniuses like Einstein, Isaac Newton, Ramanujan and always wondered what can I do to achieve their levels of success. As I grew older I read more about their lives and realized that the level of intelligence they had was not the only factor in their success. They pretty much sacrificed other parts of their lives to keep doing their work. No matter how much innate intelligence you have, without hard work and commitment you cannot invent or discover something new. A lot of people who are told they are smarter than everyone else at a young age tend to be lazier because they assume most things will be easy to learn for them. This can lead them to have a shallow understanding on certain topics and might cause them to do bad in exams or miss a working opportunity later in life.

The last lines of this talk really struck me. Because virtually everyone who creates genius level stuff needed a teacher or mentor who was devoted to helping them, so that in their early years especially they could pursue those original ideas and were encouraged to do so. I wonder if we should look at genius as a complex combination of native talent, access to an environment that allows that talent to do something, and personal/social support that helps it. The irony is that the system of publishing quantity over quality and the denigration of teaching in favor of pointless faculty committees that dominates so many modern universities is probably discouraging genius and even good scholarship in those universities.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a true, peerless genius. He was not born in a society or culture where there was any kind of exposure to such a scientific community and yet, his contribution to the scientific world is huge.

Remember everyone, genius is not exclusive to science. Genius in Latin is “guiding spirit present at birth” so it has nothing to do with any particular area of study. He’s right: genius is a story. You don’t need to be exceptional at math or science to be a genius. Go be great at what you love and create your story to last lifetimes

I am nowhere close to a genius myself, but have been surrounded by many I would consider to be "geniuses" in my life. I used to be in the astrophysics field, and met people who worked on things like LIGO and space robotics that just seemed to think on a completely different plane of existence. Even back in my undergrad level, there was a peer of mine that just seemed to naturally understanding every concept thrown at him that I would spend 20 hours studying just to have a toddler's grasp of the subject.

My father used to say anyone can work with language if given the alphabet, but to create with no knowledge of an alphabet is pretty impressive. I think we are missing opportunities to solve problems by failing to join academics in differing fields of study, and by not ignoring artificial boundaries our societies erect to divide researchers up( selfish competition ).

It is very interesting because Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, in addition to being geniuses, had something else that has nothing to do with genius. Both were "characters for the show" Einstein because of his hairstyle, the clothes he wore, the famous photo in which he sticks out his tongue, the image of "Mad Scientist" so used in the media has been taken from him. On the other hand, in Stephen Hawking the disease he suffered stood out, making him an image of overcoming, of an almost supernatural intellect because unfortunately his body was withering. These two people have extra genius characteristics, they are unique characters because of those characteristics, they are not only geniuses, they are in some way the archetype of outstanding genius.

Something that’s always been interesting to me is that while mathematicians and scientists frequently make their most important discoveries early in life (20-30), composers and writers tend to produce their best works later in life (35-60.) For example, Beethoven’s 9th symphony and Bach’s Mass in B Minor were written shortly before each composer’s death. Even though Mozart was a child prodigy and died at the age of 35, two of his best known works (Symphony 40 and Requiem) were written in his last few years.

The extraordinary thing about Hawking is how he continued to perform research and put out papers and books despite his condition. He is an incredible example of willpower and perseverance.

I talked with Dr. Peter Saulson just yesterday, one of the lead researchers for the LIGO project. He said he was surprised early on in his career that test scores seem to have nothing to do with whether or not someone was a good researcher, rather, resilience and emotional intelligence were the real determining factor of success, and these were not taught or tested.

Too many genius are undiscovered in our society. We'd rather have good workers, not good thinkers.

Society rejects differences. Being smart is different. Imagine all the geniuses that died in a ditch because they were born to a poor family. Newton would have struggled to prove he was a genius without the freedom and support of being born into nobility. If we made society a place that nurtured people, we would advance so fast.

Hawking inspired the layman like Feynman did also. That is considerable when talking about impact in other ways besides citations. Hawking had an influence over the amount of scientists there are in the world today, in my opinion. He got people interested and made things available to the world in a way that is seldom done. The balance of inspirational genius and genius in ones field. The fact that he was still able to do this through his declining health is also worth mentioning.

A few months ago I had a chance to attend Mr. Barabási’s seminar on “Art of Connection” in Milan where he talked about using art to present data in ways that appeal to everyone. As a university student studying Economics & Data Science, I was amazed by how data can be mapped in creative ways when art and data science are made to be intertwined. During the seminar, Mr. Barabási presented some of his past projects such as viewing world cuisines through the mapping of chemicals that appealed to our gustatory senses as spicy, sweet, etc. A 3D model sculpted by artists using the data map clearly showed how certain tastes are prevalent in certain regions. I certainly enjoyed listening to Mr. Barabási once again, this time on “The Science of Genius”. 😄

A huge factor for why I think scientist make their biggest discoveries often at the beginning of their career is that many scientist become parents. Many people become significantly less focused on their career (genius or not genius) after having children. Scientists who do not have children I’d bet see much greater rates for scientific achievement later in life.

Everyone forgets about Paul Dirac. Paul was insane-ly smart. So much so that when asked to comment on him Einstein said: "I have trouble with Dirac. This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful."