The Nature of Genius

I believe that intellegence is composed of two aspects: Retention and Vision.

All people possess some of both qualities, the ability to remember facts that they have experienced and the ability to infer new meanings and ideas based on those facts. However, this ratio is not set, people can be more to one side or the other, and their intellegence as a whole is based on the sum of these two faculties.

I shall demonstrate. Consider your intellegence to be the number Z. Z is the sum of your level of Retention and your Vision. If I and another person are equally smart then the number Z for both of us is the same. However if my retention value is X and Vision is Y (where X is greater than Y), and the other person's is inverse (Y retention and X Vision)then we will not perform the same on tasks meant to differentiate the two.

one of these tasks would be as follows: Take apart a small combustion engine, name and identify the purpose of all the parts, then put it back together. The other person with more vision is able to take apart and play with engine and figure out exactly how it works just by examining it, and may be able to do this very quickly. I on the other hand have little vision and am not as adept at this. However, if someone sits down with me and does it for me once, I am able to retain everything that is shown me very well. The initial training takes longer for me than the person with better vision, but when presented the problem again I immediately know how to solve it. The visionary on the other hand, may remember that they had seen the problem before, but not remember all about because they could just rely on their ability to figure out again if necessary.

If this test were administered several times, this would be the result:

first time) The Visionary finished fater than me because they were able to figure it out on their own.

second time) We finish at about the same time because i remember more of the problem from before, and the other person starts from scratch. I require no outside assistance this time and am able to rationalize my way through some difficulties due to an increased knowledge base.

thrid time) I finish significantly faster than the other person because I have mastered and remembered the task and they are still figuring out all over each time.

fourth time) My finishing time is the same as the third test, I have mastered it to the best of my ability. The other person still finishes behind me, but has narrowed the gap due to growing familiarity.

Fifth time and on) We finish in the same time and this is always the fastest time possible because we both have mastered the task.

These results demonstrate how we both posses some of both qualities, but in differing proportions. We end up maxing out at the same time because we are equally smart as a whole (Z is equal).

Using this view, savants would be classified as people who's Z is comprised totally of one aspect or the other. (all retention, or all vision). This is a person who can memorize and encyclopedia but can't figure out how to tie their shoes, or a person who doesn't know thier birthdate, but can play piano by ear without instruction.

Real genius would posses high scores in both aspects yielding a very large number for Z. However, they could still be lopsided in one aspect over the other. Many people know someone who is smart because the remember everything they have ever read or heard, and also know somone who is smart because they can just look at something and figure it out, or know the right questions to ask, or just look at things in a different way.

This isn't revolutionary, or awe inspiring, but it is interesting. Next time you see someone and are like "they are really smart", think about what kind of smart they are. Also analyze yourself and think about if the job you have that frustrates you, or the people that don't understand how you do things boils down to the way the problem or person fits your strengths and weaknesses on this scale.

Kind of neat.