BE A GENIUS

 We hear a lot about genius. We learn to admire the minds of the infinite, the confusing

but amazing geniuses like Einstein, Tolstoy, and Picasso.

 Pretty much what genius actually is

left a little unclear. It's a code word for 'brilliant but maybe too otherworldly'

indeed to be understood.’ We are invited to remain in awe of the achievements of genius

but also to feel that their thought processes can be quasi-magical and that they ultimately are

just puzzling about how they could even come up with the ideas they had. But

There is a radically different view, indicated by an extremely prescient quote from the 19th-century

century American genius Ralph Waldo Emerson: In the minds of geniuses we find - once

more - our own neglected thoughts. This tells us that genius does not

have differenviewsts from the rest of us. They just take them more seriously.

We will often have our own sketchy, hesitant version of their ideas - which

is why their works can make such a strong impression on us. What they present, they feel

surprising and impressive, of course; but also evident and right—once it was

poked out. They give a clear and powerful articulation of concepts that are already known

for we have been going around them ourselves, perhaps for years without ever being

able to really close into them. Genius in this sense can be defined as paying closer

attention to our true thoughts and feelings and being brave and tenacious enough

upon them, even if they find no immediate echo in the world beyond. The reason why we

distance ourselves from what is going through our minds is essentially anxiety. We kill 

the most promising ideas for fear that they will seem strange to us and others (which explains

why young children are in their own way more interesting than average

adults: they have not yet become experts in what not to say or think). But when we censor

and shut down when we are afraid and try not to think is exactly the moment when

the so-called genius begins to notice what is going on in their mind.

 We operate with a false image of genius when we identify it too strongly with what is exotic and absolute

outside of us. It's something much more provocative than this. Genius is what we can all be when

we pay careful attention to what actually passes through consciousness. We all have

very similar and very capable minds; where geniuses differ is in their more robust inclinations

to study them properly.