Ingenius Genius

[paigetheoracle]

According to an article in The New Scientist by David Dobbs (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human or http://www.daviddobbs.net), the mind is developed through hard work, just like the body is (Cambridge Handbook of expertise and expert performance).

 

It's not a question of being born with a brilliant brain but developing it. "The notion that people love doing what they are good at is back to front - they're good at them because they love doing them and will spend hours practising".

 

Praise it seems is counter productive because it leads to resting on your laurels and becoming self-indulgent. It also leads to elitist attitudes, where the child becomes afraid of failure because he doesn't want to let others down or appear foolish. Elitist schools don't work because getting the best resources can make children smug and lazy as well as cowardly, as stated in the last sentence. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth, is no guarantee that it will stay there: 'Alice through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carrol and the need to keep running on the spot, to stay there (Stop moving and you get thrown off or dragged back into the past by the spinning of the Earth). It's like the man on the chariot, accompanying the victorious general on his Triumph through ancient Rome, whispering in his ear 'Remember thou art mortal' (In other words don't let it all go to your head and get complacent - believe your own hype or the flattery of others).

 

Genius it seems comes through inspirational instruction, a supportive environment and sheer hard, bloody work. "It isn't magic and it isn't born" according to one researcher. It seems it also takes time to come to fruition (10-15 years, to reach the boil - like all well cooked projects, it needs to mature: It's not just a question of getting things roughly right but honing down your act, so that it is word perfect and faultless in design).

 

This also goes back to another posting of mine yesterday about 'Crime' . You either knuckle down and join society or whinge about it and lifes unfair treatment of you - develop your mind and sense of responsibility or negate (deny) your creative talents i.e. take the easy way out. Irving Welsh, the Scottish author, thinks kids who become vandals didn't have the choice of a decent education - I actively dispute this. As I said in this other posting - two people can come out of a slum, one will become an honest, hardworking member of society and the other will turn to crime. It's a question of 'choice', not genes or opportunities: I've known crippled or disabled people who work and fit, healthy individuals who avoid it like the plague or turn to crime (The problem is inside and is about attitude, not about physical attributes outside).

 

:hihi: