What is the characteristic that defines a genius? It is a question that humanity has asked itself throughout time. Many want to achieve excellence but only a select few achieve such an undertaking.
In most cases, we do not understand how it happened that that person could have gotten there. Why were Picasso or Dalí able to develop such fruitful and innovative works? Why did Mozart have a greater capacity to compose than anyone at a young age? How could Albert Einstein formulate theories as abstruse as that of relativity?
It is often said that geniuses are so thanks to a innate gift : contain the potential necessary to develop a talent in a specific activity. This vision is not entirely accurate. No doubt, geniuses are naturally talented, but potentiality is not the defining characteristic of genius. Below we will detail a total of five traits that every genius fulfills.
1. They are analytical and impulsive
To write your book Creativity (Paidós, 2008), the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi He interviewed ninety-one geniuses, from many different disciplines, among whom were fifteen Nobel Prize winners. One of the conclusions reached with this research is that highly talented people have two characteristics in abundance: curiosity and impulsivity. “They are people abducted by their work, and even though they are surrounded by more talented people, their immeasurable desire to know reality is a defining trait,” argues Csikszentmihalyi.
2. Regulated training does not matter as much as dedication to your specialty
We tend to relate academic record with excellence, but such a relationship does not exist in many cases. Professor at the University of California Dean Simonton investigated and analyzed the academic records of 350 geniuses who lived between 1480 and 1860, among whom were names such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Ludwig van Beethoven and Rembrandt.
It established that the level of formal education that each one had received and He set parameters of excellence according to his works. The conclusions were unexpected The relationship between training and excellence formed a bell-shaped graph: the most brilliant geniuses were those whose level of education was average, which could be equivalent to a diploma. Those who had more or less background were less creative.
The brightest they continued studying self-taught, in addition to being in love with their work, devoting most of the day to their studies and work. The highest-ranking creators are those who take their passion to the extreme.
3. Self-criticism
Psychologist Howard Gardner states that great creators like Picasso Freud or Stravinsky They had a similar pattern of work, based on trial and error: they observed a problem, engineered a solution, experimented with it, and composed systematic feedback. “Great people,” explains Gardner, “spend a lot of time thinking about what they want to achieve, whether they have been successful or not, and if they haven’t, what they need to change.”
Creative minds are also the most methodical
4. They are dedicated, lonely and can become neurotic
The creators are continually reflecting on his work and this entails some disadvantages Thinking about work non-stop leads to wear and tear on personal relationships. Csikszentmihaly affirms that most geniuses fail to establish social relationships during their youth, mainly due to their curiosity about disciplines that are strange to their peers. The rest of the adolescents maintain a gregarious attitude and are usually not willing to dedicate time to perfecting their talents.
Sometimes, the dedication required to be a genius can be understood as a pathology. These continued sacrifices can become obsession: exceptional creators do not have to be happy. We only have to stop to see the austerity with which Sigmund Freud, TS Eliot or Mohandas Gandhi lived, as well as the terrible self-imposed loneliness that marked the life of Albert Einstein. Most geniuses develop neurotic traits: Their dedication made them selfish and manic.
5. They work for passion, not for money
True geniuses live their work with love, and rarely dedicate themselves to it for money or any reward, but rather for passion and vocation. “The creators who have perfected their work by the pleasure of the activity itself “More than for extrinsic rewards, they have engendered an art that has been socially judged as privileged,” says the writer. Dan Pink in his book The surprising truth about what motivates us (Planet, 2000).
“Likewise, it is those who were least motivated by extrinsic rewards who ultimately received them.”
Some great phrases to reflect on
Along the history, Many brilliant minds have left us pearls in the form of phrases that invite us to reflect on a multitude of aspects of reality We have compiled them in an article in which, in addition to the famous quotes, we wanted to develop a reflection or interpretation on each of them.
