The Geography Of Genius

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print.

Over the centuries there has arisen many undisputed geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, and Albert Einstein. With the rise of geniuses such as these there are two questions raised. What is genius? Is genius born or can it be learned? Scholars have gone back and forth and there is plenty of evidence and countless examples supporting either side. However, there appears to be a compromise between the two sides in how a genius comes about.

Earl Hunt a professor says “ While petty crime rates would fall in a society of Newton's, Hunt speculated that white collar crimes, such as banking scams and cover-ups by pharmaceutical companies, might increase even grow more sophisticated”(Wolchover, By Natalie “What if Humans Were Twice as Intelligent?”LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 14 Jan 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2016). Hunt states that small crimes would flush down the toilet like a dead fish, but bigger crimes would be performed more often as people would be more sophisticated making the crimes more sophisticated. Richard Haier a neuroscientist says that “Even if everyone had an IQ of 200, you’d have exactly the same range of personalities as you do now, and because that's a determining factor is how good society is, you won’t necessarily have a better society”. (Wolchover, By Natalie “What if Humans Were Twice as Intelligent?”LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 14 Jan 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2016). Haier explains that even with people with higher IQs the world would be a better place because people's ways wouldn’t change. Hunt also says “there’s evidence to suggest that many humans, if significantly smarter would, lose their belief in God”. (Wolchover, By Natalie “What if Humans Were Twice as Intelligent?”LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 14 Jan 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2016). Hunt clearly shows that as people become smarter they will

"The fear of failing to succeed keeps people from realizing their Personal Legend and fulfilling it to be happy. " This, the theme of the book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, is contributed to by the geography featured in the novel. Thomas C. Foster's book "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" describes geography in literature being 'about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces inhabiting humans' (page 174, HTRLLAP). Simply, geography usually affects the decisions of characters, along with most elements of a story, such as plot and theme. The geography of "The Alchemist" greatly influences the characters along with the theme; the barren desert of Egypt causes characters to act more cautious.

A: The time to innovate is made possible by the agglomeration of people, services, and goods in a city that is not possible, or far more difficult, in rural areas.

To start, in chapter 4 of Outliers, Gladwell describes a genius by the name of Christopher Langan. His IQ is 195 and he is considered one of the smartest men in America. Take a look at his accomplishments. He doesn’t have many, and for a very distinct reason. The reason is he doesn’t have anyone to help him; he never did. Growing up, Langan’s family struggled with being poor. His parents never helped him that much while he was developing, so therefore he never learned to take initiative and to work hard. Compare him to Einstein. Einstein’s IQ, being significantly lower, accomplished so much in both the science and academia fields. Einstein had much help to bring him to the position he was in, allowing him

Many cultures express to people at a young age those with “book smarts” are far more intelligent than those who are “street smart.” It is a common misconception that one must rely solely on academia to be considered an intellectual. In the essay “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff proposes, “street smarts beat out book smarts” (268). Learning from everyday life, whether good or bad, and cultivating ways to adapt or overcome life’s obstacles is a true sign of intelligence. Life experiences contribute to the evolution of character that defines people. Intelligence should not be solely based on institutional learning but in conjunction with real life experiences and self-development from personal interests.

A child’s abnormally high IQ may trigger thoughts of undoubted success for many of us, but Outliers shows us that many with unbridled promise fail to deliver. This study shows that almost all “geniuses” that fail to complete post-secondary degrees have one glaring trait in common: socioeconomic status. Gladwell presents the case of Chris Langan, a man who’s IQ nears 200 and taught himself to read by age four. Langan spend his adult years as a bouncer and later ran a horse farm. This is hardly dignified work for “the smartest man in America.” Langan’s only mistake was growing up poor. Gladwell compares Langan with Robert Oppenheimer, architect of the atomic bomb. While both were extremely intelligent, only Oppenheimer grew up affluent and gained necessary skills needed to succeed. While Langan had difficultly figuring out the procedures necessary to fill-out financial-aid forms in college, Oppenheimer was raised to learn social niceties. The author goes into great detail explaining how the experiences provided to Oppenheimer through family wealth helped separate him from a fate all-to-often

Gladwell reveals that to excel in the world, one must be born with or introduced to the right tools. These tools may include being born into a high class home, when one is born, as well as being recognized early in school. When Lewis Terman, in 1921, conducted the Genetic Study of Genius observation, he only took into account the subjects I.Q. scores. It wasn’t until later, when he noticed the divergence of three different groups A, B, and C, did he realize that it wasn’t only about scores. The groups were separated by societal class, group A born from the high end of the scale while C was from the lower end. Group A, as well as most of B, did superb at the same time that group C fell out. Intelligence

In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell examines the reason why some people are anomalously more successful than others. One would normally think that success is achieved through intelligence, however Gladwell squashes that notion. Throughout his book, one sees that relying on only intelligence can sometimes be detrimental to one’s success, especially in chapters three and four, where one man (who possessed an extremely high IQ) was forced to drop out of college due to a lack of money and social skills. Gladwell argues that, while these outliers can seem to be more successful due to mere intelligence and skill, in reality, they have achieved it through a highly interlinked mix of background, practice habits, and legacy.

He was unable to study because he lost a scholarship, and he could not change classes after his car broke. Other unfortunate events escalated, which caused him to be like many others a “squandered talent” (Gladwell 115). However, another genius, Robert Oppenheimer, tries to kill his tutor in an act of mental instability, but is only held on probation in college. Because Oppenheimer passed “practical intelligence”, it allowed him to have great social abilities and to “get what [he] want[ed]” (Gladwell 101). This ‘savvy’ comes from cultural and other outside influences, as a case study of different social class children shows us. The upper and middle class children were brought up with these necessary influences that taught them to wield this ‘social power’, but lower class children never learned the skills. Consequently, Langan was of a low class, and Oppenheim was of the upper class, Gladwell uses Langan’s somewhat ‘failed’ life to demonstrate how usually successful people never “make it alone” (Gladwell

The speaker in the book The Geography of Genius by Eric Weiner is Weiner himself. The book consists of Weiner recounting his experiences as he visits cities that, at some point in time, flourished as cities full of so called geniuses. Throughout the book, Weiner presents himself in his writing as well as in his interactions with people as pretentious. He speaks about time travel, suggesting that being in the city that geniuses once roamed could allow him to travel back to that era when the city was flourishing so as to understand why these cities were special enough to host a multitude of geniuses. His has an informative tone, as his motive was to educate others on why geniuses pop up in the places that they have in the past.

The argument behind "Geniuses" is that not all individuals with the privilege of having an IQ higher than 100, have the opportunity to be successful in life. Many may, like Langan, fall behind for various reasons and not be able to hold the fort down in the education and work aspects of their lives. This can happen to any individual no matter if you have a great IQ or not. Gladwell contextualizes his argument by giving his readers a way to visualize such an aspect in someone's life. He does so by giving us, as his readers, a look into the lives of various individual's such as Langan. He gives us details of their lives so we can better understand that being a "Genius" is sometimes not all that it's shown to be. The contextual perspective Gladwell

The thought of when you pass a critical point in your intelligence and then other things in your life start to matter more for you to continue being successful is called the Threshold Effect. Now the threshold effect relates to Terman’s error because Terman thought that all of his students that had high IQ’s would turn out to be all very successful in life, but that was not the case. What Terman didn’t know is that your level of intelligence won't always define how well you do in life. Look at two of the people Terman actually cut out of the group of kids because they were not intelligent enough. Those two kids eventually became Nobel Prize winners, and the other kids that were intelligent and he thought would be successful in life all didn't

Who would have thought that a rural boy would become one of the greatest minds of history? This boy was born during the Italian Renaissance, a time of great rebirth and renewed interest in cultural arts (Leonardo artist page 3). His name was Leonardo da Vinci, and he was born in April 15, 1452 (Leonardo artist page 9). Many would call Leonardo “a jack of all trades; master of none,” yet possibly he was a master of all (Leonardo artist page 4). He had achieved many talents and countless accomplishments (page 4). A genius at heart, Leonardo had many jobs and careers: “a painter, a sculptor, an inventor, an engineer, a writer, an architect, and… a scientist.” (Leonardo artist page 5) An excellent observer, he would often study his