Are Geniuses Born Or Made? - Topic

Thor123422

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#51

Dec 10 2023 09:17pm

Quote (JessiWan @ Dec 10 2023 08:47pm)

He works as a chemist though. He must know something.

We work in the same field.

Tell me, do I know something?

Handcuffs

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#52

Dec 10 2023 09:18pm

Quote (JessiWan @ Dec 10 2023 07:15pm)

Very, sir.

But the answer is always the same.

JessiWan

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#53

Dec 10 2023 09:18pm

Quote (Thor123422 @ Dec 10 2023 07:17pm)

We work in the same field.

Tell me, do I know something?

I think so; but he also appears knowledgeable to me, too.

JessiWan

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#54

Dec 10 2023 09:19pm

Quote (Handcuffs @ Dec 10 2023 07:18pm)

But the answer is always the same.

And what's that? "We don't know for sure; but we think it's a combination of both genetic and environmental influences"?

Handcuffs

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#55

Dec 10 2023 09:23pm

Quote (JessiWan @ Dec 10 2023 07:19pm)

And what's that? "We don't know for sure; but we think it's a combination of both genetic and environmental influences"?

:D

That it is indeed a combination of factors.

There have been some interesting attempts by parents to foster genius, but that usually just involves specialization of talent, such as the Polgár sisters' father.

Sioux

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#56

Dec 10 2023 09:27pm

Quote (El1te @ Dec 10 2023 07:03pm)

The main issue is that the active contribution to the field in question is typically very low impact or otherwise irrelevant. It depends on how many citations your work gets & how the knowledge is propagated forward but that is the very small minority of PhD work. In reality, it's whatever your professor can get by convincing the grant committee, and then using a small fraction of that money to hire what are in essence slave workers to do work for the professors benefit.

It's a big club and you ain't in it unless you're a tenured professor, and even then you must toe the line or be ostracized. Such is the reality of academia.

I mean I don't think this is necessarily wrong. There's a lot of junk science out there, but realistically most people don't make a huge contribution with their PhD work. It's all incremental and large advances can be measured in careers as opposed to papers.

Granted sometimes you get lucky.

JessiWan

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#57

Dec 10 2023 09:31pm

Quote (Handcuffs @ Dec 10 2023 07:23pm)

Yes.

Personally I think intelligence is mainly determined genetically. There has been studies on identical twins raised in totally different environments but they grew up to have very similar levels of intelligence as well as accomplishments. But more importantly, I go by a very simple principle: if it were possible to turn kids into geniuses through nurture, we would have been pumping out geniuses already. But we don't. We can try and "enrich" kids' environments as much as we want, but the vast, vast majority of them will not go on to become geniuses. And the only ones who do, do so because they have the genes for it.

This post was edited by JessiWan on Dec 10 2023 09:32pm

El1te

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#58

Dec 10 2023 09:33pm

Quote (JessiWan @ Dec 10 2023 07:08pm)

I think this has merit. When I was in uni, I had heard of cases where the professor "stole" his PhD student's ideas and passed them off as his own.

It's not purely intellectual/academic as some might think. There is a lot of politics involved.

I'm pretty sure that can happen alot. Especially if students do alot of work then have some sort of a fall-out with their professor or otherwise have to leave.

Very true, the universities present an idealized fiction that tricks students into thinking their indentured servitude is for a higher cause (advancing the field) and that their pursuit is noble. It's not only politics but also money - you can follow the money all through the universities to woke politicians, it's a big foreign student racket, that's why the universities are so eager to appease anti-semitic kids.

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#59

Dec 10 2023 09:35pm

Quote (JessiWan @ Dec 10 2023 07:31pm)

Yes.

Personally I think intelligence is mainly determined genetically. There has been studies on identical twins raised in totally different environments but they grew up to have very similar levels of intelligence as well as accomplishments. But more importantly, I go by a very simple principle: if it were impossible to turn kids into geniuses through nurture, we would have been pumping out geniuses already. But we don't. We can try and "enrich" kids' environments as much as we want, but the vast, vast majority of them will not go on to become geniuses. And the only ones who do, do so because they have the genes for it.

Perhaps capacity for intelligence is genetically influenced, but seeds are nothing without fertile soil, water, sunlight, etc.

And this doesn't even begin to get into the imperfect, murky waters of defining what is even meant by 'intelligence'.

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