What Makes A Genius By Julie Kalx Summary

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.

The relationship between Salieri and Mozart is like a painting, commencing with splattered envy after Mozart’s extordinary musical talents disrupt Salieri’s clean, white, sanity. Splatters become blotches when Mozart uses Salieri’s “prize pupil” (33), Katherina Cavalieri, to fulfill his professional and sexual aspirations. Covered in thick, black envy, Salieri seeks lust to better himself than his opponent: “As I watched her walk away on the arm of the creature, I

In the article, the author highlights differing views on the nature of intelligence. He states that in Asian cultures intelligence is something that they must acquire or work to achieve; whereas, western cultures view it as something one is born with. Neither of these views is necessarily incorrect however, I believe the best outlook lies somewhere in between. People are born with natural gifts and skills. Therefore, certain subjects come very easily to them. Nevertheless, it is possible for one to increase his skill by applying himself.

One of the first things a child is taught while growing up is the well-known cliché, practice makes perfect. This phrase has been the basis for trial and error situations time and time again, where if it doesn’t work the first time then keep trying. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell leaves the audience with a memorable observation, the 10,000 hour rule. The basis of the 10,000 hour rule is that an area of interest requires 10,000 hours of practice in order to become an expert. Although this may be true in some situations, how can someone practice something they are unable to do? Natural talent and ability are crucial characteristics in order to become an expert in any area. This phenomena highly lends itself to the observations made about intelligence and genetics. The main misunderstanding when considering whether this argument is fundamentally nature or nurture is the difference between intelligence and education. Many consider education to be exactly equal to intelligence, which is the basis for the believing that working hard will essentially result in intelligence. Intelligence is considered as “a very general mental capability that, among other things, involved the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience” (Colangelo19-39.) Qualities that make up the realm of intelligence are things that people are simply born with and cannot easily be taught and trained. One may be able to work twice as hard as the next person and equalize their achievements, but the essential difference at work is the way the mind process information and the difference between intelligence and education. Although some consider intelligence to be an environmentally based attribute, they fail to understand the true meaning of

For the wife, Louise Mallard, this was an awakening of a new life. This new life is cut short as the information that led her to believe this news turns our false. Kate Chopin reveals that even the desire for love is trumped by the need for freedom and independence, through her use of precise diction and syntax, and symbolism. (rewrite)

Comparatively, a scientific essay, “Coming to Our Senses” written by Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the importance of acknowledging the weaknesses in humans in order for technologyto advance. Furthermore, the painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

Intelligence has a limit, geniuses have a threshold, and divergent thinkers are our future. Malcolm Gladwell addresses these issues in the chapter “The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1” and I have to agree with his reasoning. In the chapter, the Termites are a group of highly intelligent kids that Lewis Terman (hence the name Termites) keeps tabs on as they go through life. He believes that because these students have such high IQs that they will be boundlessly successful. However, it turns out that some are successful and some are not, and I believe the success of the Termites was partially based on personality.

In order to engage an audience in a piece of work, an effective beginning must be implemented so that the reader is inclined to continue being invested in the work. In both Francis Bacon’s The Four Idols and Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection, an effective beginning is introduced to grab the attention of the audience. Both authors then use other rhetorical strategies, such as comparison and deductive reasoning to strengthen their argument, enabling the reader to engage in the work.

They provide a background to our native history, present a real-life problem, which connects back to the history they supply, and offer a solution. They constantly refer to the theory of evolution and natural selection. Questions about how the human mind evolved have been around ever since Charles Darwin presented his of natural selection in 1859 with The Origin of Species. He hypothesized about where human thought and emotion came from, but his data concerned the bodies (not the minds) of distant human relatives. At around the same time, Gregor Mendel discovered that characteristics were passed from parents to offspring through genes. In 1953, their discoveries were combined with the James Watson and Francis Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA: genes were shown to be patterns of DNA that serve as blueprints for the organism’s physical traits. A few decades later, evolutionary biologists began to connect how genes translate not only to physical traits but also into human behavior. However, few actually use the results of evolutionary psychology to improve

In conclusion, people from Justice Holmes to Francis Galton who were inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection, wrote a book about the Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Into Its Laws and Consequences. According to Cesare Lombroso weaker was a group of criminals, born for evil. A wealthy English expatriate and social reformer Richard Dugdale insisted that human behavior was influenced by several factors, environment among them. He investigated the “Jukes,.” The German biologist, August Weismann, developed his theory of “germ plasm” and dictated

The definition of intelligence has strongly been debated over for many centuries, and many individuals have their arguments for what it is. So what is really the true meaning of intelligence? Some, such as college professor of psychology, Carol S. Dweck, strongly believes that intelligence is something achieved through large amounts effort and having optimistic mindsets as inferred in her article, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”. However, on the other hand, successful author of best selling novel “Steve Jobs”, Walter Isaacson, claims that intelligence is an abstract idea that is derived from ingenuity and applying creativity to life and other material concepts. With almost completely opposite sets of beliefs, it is likely that Dweck will not agree with Isaacson’s nation of intelligence being derived from natural intuition rather than raw intelligence.

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 author explains that not all genetic modification has the same purpose. He then precises that our cerebral system indirectly affected the way we now are physically and mentally. In conclusion, Darwin states that humans still carry physical traces of their less intelligent

In the class readings of “Genius or Not?” Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, shared many views on expertise. When we think of someone who may be a “Genius”, we think of a special individual who was predestined and genetically gifted to excel. Ericsson believed that “Genius” arises from something else; his views focused on how people develop into geniuses and are not just born a “genius”. He believed that the right factors combined to create a “genius”, that it wasn’t necessarily a person who was born with a high IQ. Ericsson thought that the amount of dedication and work a person puts into their discipline in practice and on some level how obsessed they were with the action

“Longinus” touches upon the concept of untrained genius in On Sublimity. “Greatness, the argument runs, is a natural product, and does not come by teaching. The only art is to be born like that. They believe moreover that natural products are very much weakened by being reduced to the bare bones of a textbook” (“Longinus”,144). Some believe that greatness is an innate quality, he refutes this argument with three points. The first point he makes is about the role of nature; he states that while nature is its own law, it cannot work without method. Secondly, nature is a primary element of creation, but the method is what provides correctness in the application. Finally, on the topic of untrained genius, he contends that when left unchecked genius