Weirdos and Geniuses

I just watched A Beautiful Mind for the first time. John Nash sounds like the sort of person I would like to have a discussion with. I notice patterns too, just not the same kind-- not the mathematical kind. There is a theory of mine I wish I could run by him, and it occurred to me I could just post it here.

My theory is, you can't be a genius, or even particularly smart, without being deficient in something else.

We all probably know about savants, like Rain Man, or Kim Peek, or other such folks. But what I have noticed is that the degree of genius in a specialized area seems to be proportional to the amount of defect.

The defect can be anything-- psychological issues, physical disabilities, chemical problems, neurological problems, or just being bat-shit crazy in some other way.

The reasoning for why this is depends on the type of problem, but most can be put down to simply putting more effort into the special interest area. Though in the case of autism, savantism can be put down to the way the brain is wired; one savant who does number calculations uses the exact same brain pathway for number calculations as he does to construct a simple sentence. Not really surprising that pathway becomes super-efficient, is it?

But when it comes to everything else, I think it's simply that the defect makes it difficult for the affected person to live "normally". And the time that person would have spent doing "normal" things is instead invested in the special interest.

For example, I am a self-declared weirdo (damn proud of it, too!) so when I was a kid, not many people wanted to hang out with me. So I spent a lot of time reading books, playing with the cat, watching movies... You know, the misfit thing. So I ended up with a good vocabulary, knowing how to approach the kitty for playtime (and when kitty was DONE being played with), and being able to quote movies at will. Simple, right?

Well, my theory is that's exactly what happens with most smart people, only on a bigger scale. A person in a wheelchair probably can't play sports, so they might spend more time with computers, and thus gets good at working with them. A person with serious psychological issues doesn't trust people, and thus doesn't spend much time with them, and therefore maybe spend more time drawing or painting (which also might help work through some of those issues).

So, it's not really a complicated concept-- I just have no proof to back it up. ^^'

Now if you'll excuse me, my kitty wants to be petted.

--Ilsa