Do you know a Genius?

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

My dad is absolutely a genius, having recently retired as a project manager at JPL. He is an areospace engineer (a literal rocket scientist) and does the funny math it takes to sling a rock from earth to Jupiter, orbit a while, then off to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

He will most likely be remembered for his work on sun-synchronous orbits [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_synchronous_orbit], though I don't know if he'd regard that as his magnum opus.

Myself, I'm smart and clever, and according to a childhood IQ test, I'd register as a genius, but I haven't made any great academic achievements as of yet. Wrote some keen game music, through.

238U.[footnote]In the event that Escapist requires me to view a commercial before getting a code, I will simply not post. Depending on the frequency, this may temper or cease my future participation in the Escapist community. Apologies in advance, if this policy prevents me from replying to you when it is proper to do so.[/footnote]

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Sanguine = Blood Red
Sanguivorous = Drinks blood.

I want that tie.

238U.[footnote]In the event that Escapist requires me to view a commercial before getting a code, I will simply not post. Depending on the frequency, this may temper or cease my future participation in the Escapist community. Apologies in advance, if this policy prevents me from replying to you when it is proper to do so.[/footnote]

 

[Zantos]

I know some people that are geniuses in their field, I'm lectured by them all the time. A couple are proper geniuses, they're very friendly, a usually quite outgoing and optimistic, but they always struggle to comprehend quite how much less you know about something.

 

[Dapsen]

I actually know a genius. I cant be bothered to write all I know about him, but seriously, hes a genius. He solves maths with methods no one has ever used, and it goes fast as the f*cking roadrunner. Also, hes all around insanely intelligent. Too bad he suffers from schizophrenia and angst, which keeps him from coming outside. He is being drugged for it, though.

Im also friends with a girl named Alba. Shes pretty much a genius too. IQ somewhere around 160, shot through school like a bullet, and shes got the wildest views and opinions on everything. She has absolutely no boundaries, and gets drunk, if not high, every weekend, and she acts like an idiot most of the time, but when she gets pissed at someone, she will seriously annihilate that person verbally.

 

[StBishop]

Yeah, he's basically Good Guy Greg. I met him when I was in highschool.

He's a mad dog. Nothing phases him and he's ridiculously smart. He was within days of joining the defence force but decided against it. When he took the aptitude test the tester was like "We will give you any job you want in the defence force, we will fast track you to the top if you join. We want you.".

 

[Kryzantine]

I know a girl who is roughly 30 points north of genius on an IQ scale. I don't rely on those but based on what I saw when I was still in school with her I'd believe it. The girl pulled literally a 100 on everything and apparently got nearly 2400 on her SATs, with the essay being the faulty section. Now I don't usually trust grades since they are mostly test based, and obviously the SAT is itself a test and test taking is a skill in and of itself so thats not a good measure. I've read some of this girls papers that she's written and based on those and her collective grades from one of the most competitive high schools in NYC she is in fact a genius.

I am quite curious as to this HS. I just graduated from one of the most competitive schools in the same system, so it would be interesting to see similarities.

Anyway, I don't know if I can classify myself a genius. I didn't do too well on the SAT or in school (then again, my school required classes at least a year higher than those of the non-competitive schools), but most people in my school regarded me as a fucking god in some subjects, the social sciences in particular - comparative government, geopolitics, the like - the kind of guy that's a monster at Quizbowl. But most people were intelligent in their own rights. I can recall a few geniuses, not counting grades. A girl who could speak Latin fluently, a guy with Asperger's who was a bio and computer science specialist, another guy who made a mockery of Times crosswords - also a comp sci person. Plenty of intelligent people, plenty of above average intelligence people who were really good test takers, and a number of average people. Few below, but most of them dropped out quick. Didn't even slow classes down for them.

But everyone has a side to them, and genius still has to be earned in my book.

She goes to Stuyvesant High School. Going into senior year now as far as I know. I say as far as I know because the possibility of her graduating early is very possible from what I've seen of her.

Oh dear. I'm going to need a name, there is a chance I would know her. I just graduated from there, and I happen to know a lot of the incoming seniors. If you're uncomfortable about posting it, message it or something. I am deathly curious as to whether I know this person IRL, and it would be impressive if I did, to compare intelligence.

And I don't think it's possible to graduate early, it's a pretty competitive school. There are usually some people who skip levels of classes - starting with her year, they had a group of people who skipped a year of history, and there's always been people skipping a year of a foreign language, and people skipping levels of math (juniors, for instance, taking multivariable and BC calculus, and it wasn't THAT uncommon, there's usually like 5 people who do it every year). But skipping a grade is nigh-on impossible. We had a child prodigy in our year who skipped 3 grades before Stuy and went through 4 years anyway - I think he's going to MIT. Smart kid. Tough atmosphere, glad to have been through that.

On the downside to the intelligence note, the school does foster a bit of pretentiousness. Students assume they are simply on another level of thinking, and to be fair, some of them are, but most of them are just good test takers. They can understand the concepts, but if you ask them what they can do with it, most people can't do too much. I guess it's something that most of them actually are on another level in concepts as well. I had this crazy bio teacher that insisted on teaching her Regents level, freshman biology class with the same content as an AP Bio class. I never noticed until I was having an argument with one of my friends 2 years later over bone composition. On another note, I actually had an argument with a friend over bone composition and decay.

Crazy place, loved it. So I question the idea of genius, I've been around some very intelligent people and I hesitate to call most of them genius just yet. It's a very subjective term, as this thread shows.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Yes I do but he also has aspergers. He is insanely smart but finds it hard to make friends. It's a shame becuase he is a really nice guy he bought me Okami for example when I didn't know anything about it.

 

[thiosk]

People who brag about their IQ scores are losers.

--Stephen Hawking

 

[TheTim]

Yea i know a genius... myself....

nah jk im not very smart,

nope i don't associate with the geniuses at my school

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

inb4 everybody here thinks they're geniuses. oh wait too late.

Most tests mean nothing, Mensa is for people who are shit at Latin and the only way to get a genius stamp is to succeed massively in life because of your talents and intellect. Sitting in your room solving tests on the internet does not make you smart.

To answer your question, no.

 

[Nico III]

I've not taken an IQ test or anything similar, so I don't know if I'm "technically" a genius. I'm pretty confident that I'm not.
The sheer amount of people here claiming to be is making me doubtful of the requirements to be labelled as one. That's not meant to insult the intelligence of those who are, but in my opinion geniuses should be few and far between and outstanding in their mental capacity. It seems that the tests people here are taking are throwing the term around a bit too loosely.

 

[FuktLogik]

Yep. He's a good friend of mine, but my response to 30% of our conversations is just "Oh yeah", "Right", "I see". Sometimes he just losses me entirely and I just nod to keep up my end of it.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

If you are talking about an IQ test, then yes - it's me. Although I know many people who are smarter than I am in ways unmeasured by the IQ test.

 

[Kryzantine]

I am deathly curious as to whether I know this person IRL, and it would be impressive if I did, to compare intelligence.

So, not mentioning names, I actually do know this person. This has been considerably useful in coming to the conclusion that genius is a more subjective term than most of us make it out to be, and it makes me doubt the IQ tests more. And I'm not sure if we can objectify it, or if we should objectify it. There are many ways of thinking, some of them with strong areas and some with weaker areas.

I think a problem with genius is that we're dealing with a very limited set here. As it is useless to determine the "smartest person", so it is to do so with our current definition of genius. A better way of posing the original question would be asking if we feel we know anyone who may belong to an intellectual elite - the top 5% of the population. I feel that is a suitable range for whom a wide span of people may consider genius.