Strong belief, strongly & long held: geniuses from the Renaissance to the early XXth century came predominantly from the aristocratic class because they had access to both tutoring and the means to focus on hard problems. I just found this article which articulates the argument convincingly https://tinyurl.com/ys9wryjh
Of course! There’s a need to have free time and fuck you money to explore the edge of the universe. The mere mortals have to pay college 🤣
I would argue it's a mix of having free time, much less distractions, and how media publishing tend to make a celebrity of one person who delivers the news and overlook the merits of other contributors. Today however, what you create is almost certainly a product of many products and it's unfair to take all credit.
No. The concept of a genius is a linguistic change that’s historically-contingent to that time period. It’s not that geniuses popped up in history and left, it’s that this particular concept of geniuses popped up in history and is receding. It’s more a language and conceptual shift than a sociological one.
This is so nice because it helps me describe the Scenius energy here even better - I consider y’all my tutors to help me get smart and curious af 🫡🫡🫡
I really dislike this arg and it feels like cope counterexamples are so easy: - Ramunajan - Leonardo's parents not married - Mozart was child labor, crossing Continent in carriages - Ben Franklin one of 17 kids, self-taught, far from an aristocrat - Alexander Hamilton son of a whore - Henry Ford a farmer's kid