Geniuses are Just Like Us

[Dimmauk]

Geniuses are Just Like Us

By Robin Lloyd, Special to LiveScience

Everyone has heard of the mad scientist or the absent-minded professor. But a look at some of the ordinary and extraordinary imperfections of a few great minds reveals that geniuses are just like us.

Albert Einstein, who came up with the theories of special and general relativity, enjoyed the company of other women while he was married. His second wife was his first cousin. He lived with her for five years before divorcing his first wife with whom he had a child before they were married.

Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary theory, agonized as a single man over whether or not to marry at all. He drew up a list of pros and cons, saying a wife was “better than a dog anyhow ... but a terrible loss of time.” He married soon thereafter, his lifelong mate.

More of the same:

Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize-winning physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb and figure out the source of the shuttle Challenger explosion, visited strip clubs nearly daily near his home in California. He mainly worked on lectures and equations there.


But for breaks, Feynman would watch the dancers and draw them. His wife, his third marriage by this time, was fine with this.

Sigmund Freud, who revealed the psychology of the unconscious in his numerous writings and was generally a nice guy, got into intense verbal scraps with his male friends due to his unresolved feelings of omnipotence, according to John Simmons, author of “The Scientific 100” (Citadel Press, 2000).

On the home front:

Isaac Newton, who arrived at three laws of motion and a law of gravity that explained that the physical world was governed by mathematics, was reared by his grandmother after his father died and his mother remarried a man whom Newton loathed, Simmons writes.

Newton had a tendency toward unnecessarily bitter and violent rages with his colleagues and friends, and he did some mid-life career hopping, including a lackluster stint in Parliament.

Marie Curie, who discovered radioactivity, lived with her husband in a sparsely furnished apartment because she hated housework. While the couple did their research in a leaky shed, they had little money and would cheer themselves up by sitting next to the stove with a cup of hot tea. She later received two Nobel prizes.

Paul Erdos, one of the 20th century’s greatest mathematicians and whose work laid the foundations for computer science, lived out of a suitcase and was a poor earner for most of his life. He said property was a nuisance and relied on the kindness of friends for food and clothing.

What makes genius?

Not convinced that geniuses are just like us? Simmons says the true similarity lies in how nurture meets nature.

In other words, the talents that geniuses are born with, such as math, cognitive and creative skills, must be nurtured socially and economically in childhood or they die on the vine, with rare exceptions, Simmons told LiveScience.

Same goes for “the rest of us” and our slightly less spectacular talents.

“The scientific genius who grew up in grinding poverty is an exceedingly rare bird,” he said. “If it seems there was a great flowering of scientific genius out of Eastern Europe beginning in the late nineteenth century, it was due in large part to a developing middle class, a stable family life, and secular opportunities for both men and women."

[Neosutra]

See, my love for women is but a reflection of my intellectual prowess.

But in the end, the difference between me and you isnt our shortcommings, it is the ever increasing cognitive gap, of which you will never surpass.

Poor humans, poor poor humans.

[Mizango]

Newton was also supposedly gay or considered bi-sexual by some accounts. Many of which were friends and family of his Science adversary Robert Hooke though, so take that for what its worth. The fact that he sired no children also playing in that as well I'm sure. Hooke and Newtons LOATHED each other and spent countless years bickering and have a beef that rivaled that of Pac and Biggie. Imagine what he'd have done had he not had a 30 year rivalry lol.

I love me some Newton though, he is hands down my favorite Scientist of all time. Who else invents Calculus out of boredom?

[Not Kuno]

Who else invents Calculus out of boredom?

The devil himself.

[Neosutra]

"Hmm, I cant really solve this planetary movement equation, so Ill just invent a new type of math".

I keep telling myself im that smart and the problems Im trying to solve are just harder, but some of these historic scientists are just amazing Q.Q

[Purrrfect]

Genius TED

[Araelus]

Feynman was absolutely hilarious, if you read some of his autobiographies.
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/nash.png

How about some Tesla?
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...nna/1tesla.jpg

[Mizango]

"Hmm, I cant really solve this planetary movement equation, so Ill just invent a new type of math".

I keep telling myself im that smart and the problems Im trying to solve are just harder, but some of these historic scientists are just amazing Q.Q

Dude tell me about it lol. That astonishes me even to this day, look at the tools they had at hand as well. Remarkable.

[Tankjr]

I was set to say Archimedes, but Tesla wins.

[Neosutra]

Dude tell me about it lol. That astonishes me even to this day, look at the tools they had at hand as well. Remarkable.

I think really that it was just the product of a society that had NOTHING to do. Many of these people were quite wealthy and just basically got to sit around and think and do physics all day of their life.

I need to cancel my internet/tv service and get back to my projects Q.Q.

[Jer]

Real Geniuses design and build a laser to be fired from a plane and use it to roast large amounts of popcorn.

[Dimmauk]

Real Geniuses design and build a laser to be fired from a plane and use it to roast large amounts of popcorn.

And have a secret lair inside one of their closets.

[Colenzo]

cool story bro

[Mizango]

I think really that it was just the product of a society that had NOTHING to do. Many of these people were quite wealthy and just basically got to sit around and think and do physics all day of their life.

I need to cancel my internet/tv service and get back to my projects Q.Q.

I would kill to live a life like that. Get paid to think and work on cosmology problems all day... QQ

[Charismatic]

I would kill to live a life like that. Get paid to think and work on cosmology problems all day... QQ

For you it'd be cosmetology, speaking of which... I need to get bolted down man.
When you comin to Houston?

[Mizango]

Bitch, ima cut you.

[Charismatic]

Don't worry man, I do have money.

[Mizango]

Cool, want to buy food stamps off of my Lone star card?

[Charismatic]

They got those up in NC?

[Mizango]

Yes, because North Carolina is the Lone star state. I told you sucka, I've been to your state. How do you think I know how bad it sucks?

Too high to read obviously. I wish I could punch you in the face right now.