"And I wouldn't trust them to change a flat tire."
Then I would say you were talking to the lucky ones.
The really bright folks I have known- like the ones with 'sweedish pennies', were not only brilliant, but capable.
Herbert Simon not only re-formed two fields (winning a nobel prize) and created a third, but he also had the real-world smarts to Build CMU into a world class institution, nearly alone as well. He also 'governed' a condo association for 4 decades, consulted on environmental issues for congress and Climbed the major peaks of the Alps solo at 50 in the 1960s. (also Learned Chineese at 80 and became the only white National Scholar of China.), and knew how to farm and raise cattle as well.
The practically incompetent don't often pull that off.
In general, those 'lopsided' folks you speak of are lopsided because they are operating on the frontier of their capability. They really are not that innately competent, just determined enough and willing to sacrifice everything for expertise in one field.
The really great ones, like Von Neumann, Turing, Einstein, Simon, Newell, Newton, wheeler and etc, they work as hard as any tradesman, but they were not incompetent fools at everything else in life.
But then there are always the Goedels and such, who really are insane geniuses. But they are really, in fact, the exception among the greats.
Just my observations.
Davin L.
Current Events » in reply to Intelligence
re: Intelligence
The whole thread (47 posts)
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- You've got to doubt the authanticity of this blog
- Bremer Is An Idiot & So Is The Bush Team If They Don't Fix Things Faster
- Thanks Greg
- That's Obscene
- re: The Promise and the Threat