Can anybody become a genius?
No.
I was a fairly-ignorant kid, but I had the good luck to be raised by two
college professors, and I've spent the last 40 years of my life reading
incessantly, researching, and learning through trial-and-error.
I'm now a highly-experienced computer programmer, who has worked for
companies like AOL and Bloomberg, and I also run a theatre company, for which I
direct Shakespeare plays. My hobbies include learning about History,
Psychology, Biology, Astronomy, and Literature, and almost everything I do has
an intellectual bent to it.
But I'm no genius. That's not false modesty. I'm certainly a smart guy,
but I'm continually running into people who can solve all sorts of problems
that I can't solve. Or, when I can, it takes me hours, while it takes them
minutes.
Over the course my life, my problem-solving ability has only increased in
the sense that I have more knowledge to work with. When you strip that
advantage away, and, for instance, give me a pure logic problem to solve--one
that doesn't require knowing anything about History or one of my other pet
subjects--I do about as well now, at 50, as I did when I was ten.
Everyone can learn. Everyone can learn quite a lot. But there are are
limits to raw intelligence.
In my mind, there are two ways to define genius: you can simply go by
IQ-test score or you can talk in terms of accomplishments.
I've never taken an IQ test. They don't interest me. But I've taken
enough similar tests to be reasonably sure I wouldn't score at genius levels.
In terms of accomplishments, by my reckoning, you have to have made
contributions on the level of Einstein, Picasso, Mozart, Shakespeare, Darwin,
or Sondheim.
I've never accomplished anything at that level of difficulty or
creativity, and I'm confident that I couldn't, no matter how many decades I
spent trying. I don't even understand the sort of mind that is capable of doing
what those geniuses did. I can't imagine it.
Traders’ Mindset: Traders' Mindset
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