Genius is defined as ‘an exceptionally intelligent person or one with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity.’ For example, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nicholas Tesla. Closer to home, the term is ascribed to my classmates. Are they the next Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein? Unlikely. As Jimmy Buffet mocks “Ain’t He a Genius?” Too broadly and lazily applied, it loses its value. Instead, genius is attributed to the quick-witted, clever, boisterous, or effortless. As such, the deep-thinker, the quiet, the hard worker, is overlooked. Essentially, we’re easily distracted with flashy responses and small cleverness - we’re superficial.

Disclaimer: I’m simply jealous; of quick thinkers, their wit, and their cleverness. I’m what you’d call a plodder, I think slow, work slow, and eat slow. I’m not flashy, I strive for nuance. I am the bonsai artist to the ‘genius’ florist. Yet, I am still jealous.

Ain’t He A Genius?

In school, only effortless results are considered genius. We see it in maths and science, with instant flashy answers, skills inherit from within rather than learnt and trained. A struggling maths student tops the year through sheer perseverance, ain’t he a genius? No, effort takes time; genius does not. An artist or a writer, no matter the trophies, are not considered geniuses. These are crafts, and as such, “words are stones … you choose each stone with consideration … the important thing is the effort. There can be no day without lifting stones. And after enough days, if you have sweated enough, scraped enough skin off your hands, been patient and diligent with your craft … you will, in the end, have a wall” - Geraldine Brooks.

Mythology of the maths and science genius represents our value for information processing capabilities. Yet even in World War II, computers replaced human processing power - think of the machine that solved the Enigma. If machines can process maths and science questions better than humans, what does it mean to excel as a human being?

Crafting our evolution

Craft is the outcome of perseverance. Human development is about crafting our skills, from the stone age, through to Classicism, Renaissance, and now our digital revolution. Genius didn’t carry us to this point; evolution requires effort. Amidst the 21st Century, AI can calculate formulas, spit facts, balance chemical equations. Through machine learning, it easily replaces the genius. It’s creativity, not information processing, that separates us from machines. This creativity lives in the humanities - literature, visual art, philosophy - and machines can’t help us here. It’s all hands on deck, and every human effort is needed. This pivot is one societies and schools have yet to adjust. Humanity’s aspiration for progress does not begin with a mathematical equation; it begins with a dream.