"They are socially awkward, prone to depression and often die childless."
I guess Darwin, with his ten children, was quite the outlier. Pretty appropriate given his research interests, though I don't know whether there was any connection there.
"They display an openness to radical ideas, which explains why so many geniuses, including Newton, dabbled in alchemy, mysticism or esoteric speculation."
I haven't read Dutton's book, but this article (https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/feature/newton-the-last-magician) offers a different perspective, drawing on John Maynard Keynes's research into Newton's alchemical studies: "alchemy wasn’t a niche to Newton at all. It was, in many ways, Newton’s life work—more vital to him than physics or mathematics ever was. This Newton 'was not the first of the age of reason,' Keynes concluded. 'He was the last of the magicians.'"
In this view, it seems more as though Newton's mystical side was a particularly conservative trait, a holdover from an age which was coming to a close, rather than a radically innovative one. However, I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject.
IQ tests also test visual perception, abstract reasoning, analytical thinking, and spatial orientation in addition to pattern recognition.
But I agree there are several traits that lead to a genius level. In addition to creativity, there is intuition, imagination, inquisitiveness, and insight.
Pointing out that geniuses often have lopsided rather than balanced scores is important. Richard Feynman had an unbalanced profile for intelligence as well. An IQ test can only do what it was designed to do. If you get a perfect score on one subtest, it means you are in about the top 10% for that ability. To measure whether you are in the top 99% or 99.9% of that ability would take many more questions. If you do that across all subtests the test becomes too unwieldy to be useful.
This describes our oldest child quite well, certainly eccentric though probably not genius. At close to 30 he still lives at home with us. He will complete a fulltime 4 year STEM degree next year. At five (around 2001) his school sent him to a psychologist who did a WISC IQ test (twice) on him and reported 4sigma variation in his subtests (she measured an aggregate IQ in the 120s).
My wife's liver fails through pregnancy. During her first pregnancy she was not diagnosed and he was born early with an agpar score of 6/9. The ob/gyn said he was lucky to live. During subsequent pregnancies she had experimental drug treatments and our other kids were carried closer to full term and are 20somethings comparatively 'normal' and successfully employed (in tech).
If we had started our family 5 years earlier our lives would probably have been very different.
Presumably the premie child does not raise himself, and given that intelligence potential in boys is inherited from the mother, this suggests that the special attention and effort of the mother of these boys may play a role in developing their genius.
Wow, excellent article.
I see Dutton's distinction between high IQ and genius. One can consider genius as a specialized IQ rather than a more common, broad high IQ.
I have admired Dutton for several years, but his most current theory adds an increased level of admiration..
"They are socially awkward, prone to depression and often die childless."
I guess Darwin, with his ten children, was quite the outlier. Pretty appropriate given his research interests, though I don't know whether there was any connection there.
"They display an openness to radical ideas, which explains why so many geniuses, including Newton, dabbled in alchemy, mysticism or esoteric speculation."
I haven't read Dutton's book, but this article (https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/januaryfebruary/feature/newton-the-last-magician) offers a different perspective, drawing on John Maynard Keynes's research into Newton's alchemical studies: "alchemy wasn’t a niche to Newton at all. It was, in many ways, Newton’s life work—more vital to him than physics or mathematics ever was. This Newton 'was not the first of the age of reason,' Keynes concluded. 'He was the last of the magicians.'"
In this view, it seems more as though Newton's mystical side was a particularly conservative trait, a holdover from an age which was coming to a close, rather than a radically innovative one. However, I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject.
IQ tests pattern recognition but not creativity (which is the essence of genius IMO).
IQ tests also test visual perception, abstract reasoning, analytical thinking, and spatial orientation in addition to pattern recognition.
But I agree there are several traits that lead to a genius level. In addition to creativity, there is intuition, imagination, inquisitiveness, and insight.
Sometimes an average Joe has All of these. And is content to be the Quiet Achiever. 🧐 Knowledge is power. Wisdom is Greater.
Pointing out that geniuses often have lopsided rather than balanced scores is important. Richard Feynman had an unbalanced profile for intelligence as well. An IQ test can only do what it was designed to do. If you get a perfect score on one subtest, it means you are in about the top 10% for that ability. To measure whether you are in the top 99% or 99.9% of that ability would take many more questions. If you do that across all subtests the test becomes too unwieldy to be useful.
Fascinating
This describes our oldest child quite well, certainly eccentric though probably not genius. At close to 30 he still lives at home with us. He will complete a fulltime 4 year STEM degree next year. At five (around 2001) his school sent him to a psychologist who did a WISC IQ test (twice) on him and reported 4sigma variation in his subtests (she measured an aggregate IQ in the 120s).
My wife's liver fails through pregnancy. During her first pregnancy she was not diagnosed and he was born early with an agpar score of 6/9. The ob/gyn said he was lucky to live. During subsequent pregnancies she had experimental drug treatments and our other kids were carried closer to full term and are 20somethings comparatively 'normal' and successfully employed (in tech).
If we had started our family 5 years earlier our lives would probably have been very different.
Presumably the premie child does not raise himself, and given that intelligence potential in boys is inherited from the mother, this suggests that the special attention and effort of the mother of these boys may play a role in developing their genius.