“Genius does what he must; talent is what it can"
"Homo sapiens" appeared on Earth about 250 thousand years ago. The developed intellect allowed the intelligent man to populate the entire planet. And throughout the existence of mankind, at all times there have appeared people with rare, outstanding abilities in various fields such as music, literature, mathematics, art. Such people were called geeks or geniuses or indigo children. Genius is the highest degree of manifestation of human creative powers, which is associated with the creation of qualitatively new, unique creations, the discovery of previously unknown problems, physical, mathematical and many other laws of nature. A genius is a person endowed with an extraordinary mind and talent, who has achieved unsurpassed results in any field of activity and is able to express non-standard ideas. Genius is the highest degree of manifestation of a person's talent and intelligence, for example:
Pushkin's creative genius; Pushkin knew perfectly well that he was a genius. But he had enough intelligence and caution not to tell anyone about it. The artistic genius of Van Gogh who did not give him a livelihood.
What forms a person: genetics (heredity) or the environment?
More than one generation of scientists fought over the riddle of genius. Some believe that the whole thing is in the characteristics of genes and the structure of the brain. Others are sure that talent manifests itself only in the presence of a rare disease. “Genius is 99 percent labor to exhaustion and one percent imagination,” said Thomas Edison. And the Soviet geneticist Vladimir Efroimson has a different point of view: "The study of biographies and pathographs of geniuses of all times and peoples leads to an inexorable conclusion: geniuses are born." And which of this is true, no one can say yet …
Prodigies are children who are superior in intellectual development to their peers. As children, they can master several professions and achieve heights in them even at school age.
Genius and giftedness is a deviation from the norm in the structure of the brain. Geneticist V. Efroimson claims that it is given to one in a thousand, develops in one in a million, and only one in 10 million becomes a real genius. These abilities are inherited. And how and when they appear depends on external factors. They cannot be nurtured by intense activities alone. As a rule, parents of geniuses do not make excessive efforts to educate the child. Children strive to explore what they like, and adults, seeing these interests, support them. Prodigies show their abilities at an early age. These abilities can relate to any intellectual field of activity: mathematics, physics, music, encyclopedic knowledge, and so on. At an early age, they can go to college,finish it and defend a thesis, while their peers are still in school; gifted children with musical talent write operas; with the ability to chess - become champions.
Contrary to the popular belief that nothing special comes out of the geeks, they often leave their genius to themselves in maturity … and remain absolutely ordinary people.
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A short excursion into the history of geniuses.
Let's remember: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was the son of a Pomor, he learned to read and write at the age of 14, for reading he was beaten by his stepmother, his father's third wife. This was the reason for his escape to the capital. What kind of environment could have influenced the young man, how did such a genetic structure form, which allowed Lomonosov to enter science as the first chemist; he gave physical chemistry a definition very close to the modern one, and outlined an extensive program of physical and chemical research. His molecular-kinetic theory of heat largely anticipated the modern understanding of the structure of matter and many fundamental laws, including one of the beginnings of thermodynamics.
Lomonosov laid the foundations for the science of glass. Astronomer, instrument maker, geographer, metallurgist, geologist, poet, philologist, artist, historian and genealogist, champion of the development of national education, science and economics. He developed a project for Moscow University, which was later named in his honor. Discovered the presence of an atmosphere on the planet Venus. We can talk for a long time about the talent of a scientist and a poet, but the question remains, how could a person bring such knowledge into science without having a specific set of genes, and where did these genes appear in the descendant of an uneducated Pomor? The question remains open, if only it can be assumed that the ancestors of our genius bore outstanding inclinations.
Next: Mozart is born, his father was a musician. His musical abilities manifested themselves at a very early age: at the age of three he sat down at the instrument and could entertain himself for a long time by selecting consonances. In addition, he memorized individual passages of pieces of music that he heard, and could play them on the harpsichord. This made a big impression on his father, Leopold. At the age of four, his father began to learn small pieces and minuets with him on the harpsichord. Wolfgang learned to play them well almost immediately. Soon he had a desire for independent creativity: at the age of five he composed small plays, which his father wrote on paper. Wolfgang's musical abilities were amazing: at the age of six, in addition to the harpsichord, he practically independently learned to play the violin. Psychologists strongly recommend listening to Mozart's music,relieving stress and psychosis, calming depression - this is an extremely healing music. In this case, we can confidently say that both genes and the environment merged into Mozart's genius.
Another example: Paganini, a virtuoso violinist, was the son of a loader. When the boy was five years old, the father, noticing his son's abilities, began to teach him music, first on the mandolin, and from the age of six on the violin. According to the recollections of the musician himself, his father severely punished him if he did not show due diligence, and this subsequently affected his already poor health. However, Niccolo himself became more and more interested in the instrument and worked diligently, hoping to find still unknown combinations of sounds that would surprise listeners. As a boy, he wrote several works for violin, which were difficult, but he himself performed them successfully. About the life of this great violinist, I refer you to Vinogradov's book "The Condemnation of Paganini" - you will have tremendous pleasure.
Example: Einstein. The son of a co-owner of an enterprise for the production of mattresses and feather beds, his mother is from the family of a corn merchant. During his studies, he brilliantly showed himself in mathematics and physics, but failed the exams in botany and French. Einstein is a genius for all time, he is the author of over 300 scientific papers in physics, as well as about 150 books and articles in the field of history and philosophy of science, journalism, etc. He developed several significant physical theories:
From 1933 he worked on problems of cosmology and unified field theory. He actively spoke out against war, against the use of nuclear weapons, for humanism, respect for human rights, and mutual understanding between peoples.
Einstein played a decisive role in popularizing and introducing new physical concepts and theories into scientific circulation. First of all, this refers to the revision of the understanding of the physical essence of space and time and to the construction of a new theory of gravity to replace the Newtonian one. Einstein also, along with Planck, laid the foundations of quantum theory. These concepts, which have been repeatedly confirmed by experiments, form the foundation of modern physics.
What played a decisive role in shaping Albert Einstein's stunning genius? - the answer for the reader.
Joseph Brodsky: poet, essayist, playwright, translator. His mother is a translator, his father is a naval officer. He left the eighth grade, got a job at a factory as a milling machine operator, worked in a morgue, was a fireman, and participated in expeditions. During Khrushchev's time he was convicted of parasitism.
According to Brodsky's recollections, in a psychiatric hospital, where he spent three weeks, they applied a “twist” to him: “In the middle of the night they woke him up, immersed him in an ice bath, wrapped him in a wet sheet and placed him next to a radiator. The sheet dried out from the heat of the batteries and cut into the body. " By the decision of this immoral court, Brodsky was sentenced to the maximum possible punishment under the Decree on "parasitism" - five years of forced labor in a remote area. He was exiled (convoyed under escort together with criminal prisoners) to the Konosha district of the Arkhangelsk region. These are the terrible pages of the Soviet era.
Brodsky is undoubtedly a genius. In 1987, Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the formulation "For an all-encompassing literary activity characterized by clarity of thought and poetic intensity."
You can endlessly give examples of geniuses known to us: Pushkin, who died at the age of 37; Lermontov at 27, Byron at 37, Gogol, Shakespeare, Stephen Hawking, Grigory Perelman and hundreds of unnamed people here.
What else can define genius? Maybe head size? The brain weight of Anatole France was 980 grams, Leo Tolstoy - 2000 grams - both were geniuses. Einstein's brain weighs 1230 g, which is less than the average brain weight of a typical adult male at this age, which is 1400 g. But in Einstein's cerebral cortex, the density of neurons is much higher than the average. This means that the size of the head is not the measure of genius. Maybe the structure of the brain, the degree of development and connections of the neural system?
Each of us is born with our own neural network, moreover, in young children there are more neurons than in adults, later they disappear as unnecessary. Further on this neural network the text of our life is written. You can see everything: what he ate, drank, with whom he communicated. If there is no Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, then the brain stores all the information that it has passed, smelled, tasted, drank, and so on, everything lies there. Therefore: “you cannot read stupid books, communicate with narrow-minded people, listen to bad music, eat poor-quality food, watch incompetent films,” says neurolinguist Tatiana Chernigovskaya.
According to recent studies, the balance of nature and nurture in shaping a child's personality varies depending on where he lives.
Each person has two natures: genes, that is, heredity, which we possess from birth and upbringing. Much in the formation of personality depends on the environment in which a person grows up. All of these factors affect height, weight, our IQ, and our risk of developing behavioral problems or autism. Scientists have finally discovered how powerful environmental factors are in determining each of a person's personality traits, compared to the influence of DNA.
In the course of observations, scientists have found that one and the same characteristic can be formed, both under the influence of the environment, and depend on genetics. This may apply to different areas of the same state. For example, studies in the UK have shown that 60 percent of the behavior of schoolchildren depends on genes. However, when it comes to London itself, it is clear that the environment has a huge impact. For example, getting into a group of friends, a teenager involuntarily falls under their influence. His personality begins to take shape thanks to those around him. The same can be said about the formation of spiritual and life values: genetics plays a fundamental role in the development of a person's personality. However, who and what surrounds us is very important in forming the right values and concepts. Observations of twins most vividly illustrate the picture of how different people with an identical set of genes, but living in completely different conditions.
The brain is plastic not only in childhood, as previously thought. It has been proven that it forms new neural connections until the end of life. Any work other than boring and routine work is beneficial for the brain. The main thing is to deal with constantly changing, complex information. The ability to receive a high-class education can become an elite privilege, available only to the “initiate”. The Italian scientist, philosopher, specialist in medieval aesthetics, cultural theorist, literary critic, writer, publicist Umberto Eco, in his novel "The Name of the Rose", suggests admitting to the Library only those who can and who are ready to perceive complex knowledge. Genius is something that cannot be taught or learned.
Thousands of talents only talk about what the era possesses, but only genius prophetically gives birth to what it lacks. The lot of genius is immortal glory. “Genius does what he must; talent is what it can”(George Bernard Shaw).