Do you know or have you met a true genius?

[zaichiki]

Make that 3 --

 

A cousin of my mother's was a Catholic priest, then a Buddhist monk, while trying to figure out the world. He could speak 14 languages fluently, but no one could hold their own in a conversation with him. Therefore he didn't interact much with people.

[KidsHappen]

I have loads of people in my family with IQs over 130. Some of them are gifted in one area. Most of them are more jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none types. I don't think everyone with an exceptionally high IQ is "gifted." That's just not my experience.

 

I tend to think of people with an exceptional ability in one area as "gifted."

 

Geniuses, I believe, are people like Leonardo DiVinci.

 

I have known a few people who are/were true geniuses and I know that many of those types lead troubled lives. :grouphug: to you, KidsHappen.

 

I tend to view gifted more along the same lines as you and I have never met a Leonardo, just a few troubled people. Thanks. You, personally, are making my night a little brighter. :001_smile:

[angela in ohio]

IQ over 130 (2 deviations from the norm.) It works out to be 2% of the population (I believe.) In ps, gifted often means "high achiever" rather than truly gifted.

 

Yes. I have seen it defined as top 5% here and there, but it seems like it is usually given as the top 2%.

[Jean in Wisc]

Maybe not the 1-per-year type, but I know two people who are amazing. One person I graduated with is in the Washington think tanks. He read encyclopedias for fun in elementary school.

 

My nephew got his doctorate in nuclear physics at age 25. Ask him any question about anything from grammar to geography, and he probably knows the answer. Amazing.

Edited March 6, 2010 by Jean in Wisc

[asta]

Yes.

 

 

a

[Birkenkathy]

Neil Moore.

 

I have no idea what his IQ is, but he is definitely a genius as defined in the original post.

 

He is the founder and creator of the Simply Music piano method. But, he is not just a musical geniius. He "gets' people in a way I have never seen before. And he looks at things, music specifically, in such a new and different way. I have a Master's degree in music and have never even begun to conceive of music the way that he does. His teaching concepts have honestly brought me to tears.

 

He has set out to change the very culture of music and music education and I believe he will do it. He is also going to change the way we, as a culture, define who is "musical."

 

Kathy

[zaichiki]

Yes.

 

 

a

 

?

[jenL]

Yes. He was in my gifted classes in school (as that is how I was labeled from an IQ test in 4th grade). He was light years ahead of the 8 of us though. He was doing high school math in 5th grade and was taking college classes in high school even though he was at a prestigious New England private school. I know he graduated at 16. I lost track of him after that until my mother sent me his obituary a couple of years ago. He died on vacation in Rocky Mountain National Park trying to save his son when their car went over a ledge. It had slipped out of park and he jumped into the car to try to stop it. His son survived, but he did not. He was brilliant, in a class all his own, and he was one of the nicest people I've ever known although he was socially inept in many, many ways, and most shunned him because they didn't get him.

[asta]

So, what about it? Have you ever met, or do you know, a true genius?

 

?

 

Yes, I have.

 

She didn't ask for particulars.

 

 

a

[cjbeach]

I don't think they're geniuses but both my dh and his brother have IQs over 135 and let just say that it makes life interesting...

 

My dh and BIL are so different that I found the combination of their intellect/creative outlets/social skills/anxieties really fascinating.

 

Some days I feel sorry them because they think on such a different level. They both have really struggled in life.