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| "How to be a Genius" author David Dobbs |
This blog post is my outlook on David
Dobbs’ article, “How to be a Genius” published in the September 15, 2006 issue
of the New Scientist Magazine. Dobbs’ idea was that geniuses are considered “normal”
people who persevere to this level of expertise through the environment they
associate themselves with. The article contains examples and information from the
experts such as Mozart, Einstein and others whom are categorized as “genius”.
Overall the majority of the article is focused on Dobb’s statement that “Geniuses
are made, not born”.
Before reading this article I always assumed that geniuses were born a genius and always lived in a bubble isolated from society. Well it indeed turns out I was completely wrong. Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at Florida State University explains the correlation between extraordinary efforts and geniuses, " These people don't necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort." (Dobbs p.2). He is basically defining the moral we were all raised with, you get out what you put in. It is a broad statement but I agree with his concept because he uses athletes, performers, artist, biologists and mathematicians to uphold his theory.
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| Max Delorenzo, UCONN Running Back |
I can personally connect to this and the idea of environment with relationship to extraordinary efforts. Back in high school my friend Max DeLorenzo and I were the two individuals that excelled on the football field. We both possessed the same level of expertise and were projected to go to a division one school since sophomore year of high school. Max set himself aside from others by investing all his time into football associating himself with those trainers, coaches, and mentors that would help him project his game to the next level. On the other hand, I did not have this same mentoring except my friends and mother which was more a means of motivation rather than education. More over, economically speaking I valued my time and invested it in extra curricular activities that did not help my game. I did not have the resources he had, nor the time and elitness Max was provided with. All in all, Max went on to earn himself a full scholarship at UCONN leaving some to believe it was pure genetics but rather I believe his environment and coaches helped earned that scholarship.
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| Yo-yo Ma, expert musician |
Dobbs stated in the article, “A genius is 1 percent inspiration, 29 percent good instruction and encouragement, and 70 percent perspiration… Geniuses are made, not born” (Dobbs 1). Dobbs hit the nail on the head with his perception of what it takes to evolve into a genius because when you have talent you can be too overwhelmed with it and fade away from it. Encouragement is a key component to the mastery because the harder you are motivated to work the more you get out of it and you become more engaged. I took with me from this reading Yo-yo Ma's simple quote "fire in the belly". Everyone has fire within them but the mind is the belly in this sense digesting their environment and finally when you learn let out your flame like a dragon people will notice you catch fire.
I thought this article was a great read and would recommend it to anyone that believes they are Mr. Smartypants or have no motivation. After reading this I feel enlightened with a new approach to life being dedicated, putting my time and work in as well as knowing in the back of my head if I do it right one day I can be in the 1% who is a genius.
I would like to leave my readers with this picture to think about geniuses:
