Smart people then & now…

[SkyeBorne]

Hello,

My mind has been going to strange places whilst on maternity leave!

I have been thinking about the great minds from the past; Tesla, Einstein, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton etc. Those types of minds and wondering how they came to be such geniuses.

My reasons being.. there is a general pressure to get our babies learning from a young age and to keep up with developmental milestones. Investing in expensive items/toys which are supposed to help with cognitive ability and learning etc. They didn’t have all this back in the day…yet I feel there seemed to be more notable geniuses back then.

I know there are lots of smart people around now, I’m not dismissing that. But you tend to not recognise their names like you do the others if you know what I mean..

I also remember watching one of those child genius competition programs relatively recently. I was amazed by the 2 young girls in the final doing complex mathematics in their heads!! Again, I wonder if they are born with a more capable brain…?

Do you think some people are born with powerful minds or do you think it is learnt?

Why do you think there were more notable geniuses in the past?
The names you list span quite a large timeframe.
How about Stephen Hawking from very recent times?

I think some people are born with great capacity, but they need an environment to let it come to fruition.

Ending up a 'genius' is a mixture of nature and nurture, but not that many people have the capacity in the first place. Of course there are modern day equivalents to the geniuses of the past, but in the age of advanced sciences and world-wide digital media, there are so many fields to be clever in, and so many people becoming well-known for so many things, that it's probably harder to single out once-in-a-generation geniuses.

Geniuses are born, not made. Giving young children access to learning from an early age will probably help them to make the best of whatever innate potential intelligence they have, but it won't make them a genius.

I know there are lots of smart people around now, I’m not dismissing that. But you tend to not recognise their names like you do the others if you know what I mean..

But our children and grandchildren may recognise some of the names you don't yet!

I think some people are born with great capacity, but they need an environment to let it come to fruition.

That's true. Nature and nurture, always.

The other thing is, there's so much going on now, so much to learn in different fields it's impossible for anyone to have a grasp of everything. There has to be more teamwork. There may be geniuses you'll never hear of.

Heres a name recognition question which might shed some light.

Which, if any, of the three winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry do you recognise?