Aesthetics 501: What is "Genius"?

How do "geniuses" emerge? The idea of a genius usually comes from them being a polymath - i.e. they are good at "everything" they do. It's quite a different thing than being an expert in one thing, which most of us get trained for during the course of modern life. (aka specialization).

But the path towards getting good at "everything" usually starts with getting good at one thing, then applying those lessons later into other things, rinse and repeat. To polymaths, it's not that they're doing different actions but the actions themselves are one in the same because all human endeavors are connected through universal fundamentals.

There's a lot of pitfalls along the way there, though. Getting good at one thing takes effort so not everyone gets there, for one. But in an era of specialization, we actually have lots of people who are good at one thing. It's what happens after that that becomes more rare.

The modern world is optimized for specialization - you go to school, pick a major, find a job in that major, earn a salary and work your way up the ladder, get married, buy a house with 1.5 kids, then happily ever after? Well it never quite works out like that in reality but it is a path many choose to stick to for at least one lifetime. The idea of getting good at a whole 'nother thing starts to sound more tedious and out of reach over time.

No short supply of charlatans and people faking it, of course; or rich people who think they can compensate their lack of effort with money and clever (but not really) marketing. But there are a few people out there who take the plunge, immersing themselves in new things all the time for the sake of it. And over time, they do get better at "everything". Though where or how they emerge is often unclear, polymaths seem to emerge fairly consistently within every culture or subculture, regardless of race, creed, social standing, or economic level - some will go far as to argue that it is part of the collective human experience as a whole.

These days, however, you rarely see real geniuses and polymaths - they're often not valued by institutions and I think even the charlatans don't use that word anymore because the world has gotten too stupid, even for them. And by "stupid", I mean fragmented - in a world where every issue is rife with tribalism and polarization, the idea that we are all connected together through universal fundamentals feels like a heresy and taboo.

A lot of polymaths have a lot of creative energy and in modern societies many end up becoming artists, entrepreneurs, and innovators to give themselves "titles" that the general public can somewhat relate to. But it can often be a lonely path since they're always playing against the whim of a society that will never understand - yet, they are the classes of people that are needed the most now, since they have the ability to mend the wounds of society tearing itself apart.

The big question is how do we find a place for people like these, at scale? In a way, it's an eternal question that every society asks itself every so often - assuming they're not too busy fighting among themselves, that is.

For the next article, we will focus on how the word "genius" has evolved over time, starting with the philosophies of Immanual Kant, who many agree originally coined the term. Stay tuned!