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Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

nautil.us

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Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#31

Post by sverige »

taurath wrote: post #27
sverige wrote: post #20

Every time I read one of these articles about genius and madness, I become smug for a little while, then I get depressed because I realize that I haven't accomplished anything noteworthy, then I'm mildly reassured because occasionally my wife will spontaneously aver (contrary to all expectation) that I am a genius, then I get distracted and start chasing some ideas, then I get depressed again because, well, shit, I s…

For some reason (probably my whiskey) your self aggrandizing comment was quite entertaining even though normally I'm put off by "I am very smart" posts.

I detest "I am very smart" posts. I just came back to delete my bullshit comment, but I have decided to let it ride because of your kind words. I am glad you found it entertaining. Hopefully I won't hate myself in the morning for not deleting it. :^0

P.S. I really don't think I am a genius, just to be clear.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#32

Post by dkarapetyan »

Evolution is probably the worst way to design anything and yet all of biology is driven by it. It is basically a random walk that just flips bits and every so often it is inevitable that some of those flipped bits will have something to do with the brain's default networks and modes of operation. But I think genius is an unstable optimum and things inevitably slide downhill. There is no such thing as heritable genius, crazy or otherwise.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#33

Post by godzillabrennus »

sverige wrote: post #20

Every time I read one of these articles about genius and madness, I become smug for a little while, then I get depressed because I realize that I haven't accomplished anything noteworthy, then I'm mildly reassured because occasionally my wife will spontaneously aver (contrary to all expectation) that I am a genius, then I get distracted and start chasing some ideas, then I get depressed again because, well, shit, I s…

We are all capable. Most of us just choose to drink our whiskey instead of leveling up to achieve something everyone will hear about.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#34

Post by dkarapetyan »

sitkack wrote: post #25
CuriouslyC wrote: post #17

Truthfully, I've found that the real difference in intelligence between people isn't so large as many people think it is. People don't generally come along and solve "intractable" problems because they're so much smarter than all the people who've tacked the problem prior to them. Instead, they approach the problem in a way that is fundamentally different. This is why outsiders are so frequently the people who make m…

A different viewpoint is worth 80 IQ points.

You mean extra IQ points.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#35

Post by dkarapetyan »

rhizome wrote: post #9

This seems quite all over the place and I'm not sure what the point was. Was it that sometimes mental illness and creativity are coincident? Everything else seemed like a bunch of worldbuilding.

Creativity is highly correlated with mental illness because the kind of brain wiring required for creativity is a bit unstable. The article points to one such instability. Creative people are worse at filtering out "unnecessary" information.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#36

Post by Judgmentality »

taurath wrote: post #27
sverige wrote: post #20

Every time I read one of these articles about genius and madness, I become smug for a little while, then I get depressed because I realize that I haven't accomplished anything noteworthy, then I'm mildly reassured because occasionally my wife will spontaneously aver (contrary to all expectation) that I am a genius, then I get distracted and start chasing some ideas, then I get depressed again because, well, shit, I s…

For some reason (probably my whiskey) your self aggrandizing comment was quite entertaining even though normally I'm put off by "I am very smart" posts.

I think it's because he doesn't take himself too seriously.

Re: Both geniuses and madmen pay attention to what others ignore

#40

Post by pryelluw »

sverige wrote: post #20

Every time I read one of these articles about genius and madness, I become smug for a little while, then I get depressed because I realize that I haven't accomplished anything noteworthy, then I'm mildly reassured because occasionally my wife will spontaneously aver (contrary to all expectation) that I am a genius, then I get distracted and start chasing some ideas, then I get depressed again because, well, shit, I s…

I used to feel the same way. What changed? My brother died. Dropped dead. I realized that life is not only short but fragile.

I started to work on improving my life one step at a time. Wanting things to happen overnight but knowing that takes time. Sometimes losing faith but never losing focus on the end goal. I want to to not waste my life. Forget being smart or doing something big. I don't want to regret wasting it.

Ive recently realized that things worth doing are worth doing well. That means its going to take time before anything good happens. Having patience is paying off.

I do stumble. Sometimes choosing to not work and relax. Whatever. My way to deal with this is to not see this as a loss but as an inconvenience. I can still (and often do) work for 10 minutes after wasting an hour or two. Its better than nothing.

Lastly, if you want to accomplish something noteworthy, go and jump off the empire state building. If you want to do something worth doing, look inside and figure out what makes you tick. Then go do it. Its not wether you can or cant. Its wether you want or not. Good luck.

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