I am very intrigued by geniuses and prodigies. My favorite movies are Good Will Hunting, A Beautiful Mind, and embarrassingly Weird Science. Some of my favorite philosophers I consider geniuses: Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and Kierkegaard. One of my favorite works by Kant is his universal idea where in thesis 4 he credits the “unsocial sociability” of man that in some way makes us all geniuses. My favorite popular culture article is Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article “The Emergence of Talent” and also his chapter in Outliers where he suggest that it was practice and not mere talent, that allowed the Beatles and Bill Gates to become who they are. I can go on and on and on but I wont.
Overall, I am interested in the habits, nurture, confidence, motivation, and even the sometimes quirky personality of geniuses. I don’t know if my interest come out of envy, appreciation or both. Or maybe I have this belief that with the right nurture, work, education, and motivation we can all be geniuses or perhaps we already are geniuses at something but we just don’t know it yet. All I know is that there is something about the very notion of geniuses that is worth studying and perhaps emulating.
This week I was glad to learn about 15-year old Sierre Leone genius, Kelvin Doe aka DJ Focus. He is a young inventor who literally invents “something out of nothing.” Its also nice to see that his intentions is to use his inventions to impact his community. Very inspiring. I think I’m going to add him to my on and on list above.