Genius -- Explained (By Mr. Nathan Lasher) (Philosocom's Subcategory On the Intellect)
Updated: Jun 8
(Disclaimer: The guest posts do not necessarily align with Philosocom's manager, Mr. Tomasio Rubinshtein's beliefs, thoughts, or feelings. The point of guest posts is to allow a wide range of narratives from a wide range of people. To apply for a guest post of your own, please send your request to mrtomasio@philosocom.com)
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Synopsis by Mr. Chris Kingsley
Mr. Nathan Lasher's article explores the multifaceted nature of intelligence, introducing concepts like SQ (social quotient) and XQ (experiential quotient) to represent a person's overall abilities.
He argues that genius emerges from the ability to use multiple quotients simultaneously, typically a blend of IQ and EQ. Genius involves creativity and effective utilization of diverse cognitive skills, not just high IQ.
Mr. Lasher also discusses the hereditary nature of certain talents and suggests that mental illnesses can coexist with high intelligence. He believes anyone can cultivate genius by nurturing imagination and creativity, suggesting practical steps like imagining various uses for unfamiliar objects and recording personal experiences.
There is a different expression of intelligence which most people are unaware of. Most people understand intelligence as a representation of IQ, intelligence quotient, and they understand EQ, emotional quotient, which is how well you handle your emotions. What people aren’t as aware of is SQ, social quotient, and XQ, experiential quotient.
It is the different quotients which combined demonstrates a human's overall abilities. Social quotient is how well you perform in various social situations or in other words your social abilities. Experiential deals with a person learning through their experiences as well as knowing what to do with what they know. A person with high XQ can utilize their knowledge gained from experience to determine the paths to take in the future.
You can view the four main quotients as expressions of intelligence. Where the idea of savant comes in, is all of a sudden being able to use one or more of the expressions. This is usually the result of the cognitive features a person has which is why savant skills are generally very broad.
You enter the world of genius when you start to use multiple quotients at the same time. Typically a genius will be a combination of IQ and EQ.
What happens when you are divergent and a little bit of them all? Why are people more interested in borderline individuals than actual geniuses? The thing which combines all different quotients is intelligence using each in order to express itself. You turn towards unique abilities when you discuss the semantics of distinctions in neuroanatomy. For instance, a person who processes sound differently might be drawn towards music. Every person’s brain is a little different, but generally, most people’s brains are seen as regular due to most people's genetics being the same.
Intelligence is simply the ability to use what is available to you in an effective way. This means that intelligence is dependent upon availability of cognitive skills. It also has to do with being aware of said cognitive features. As most people do not possess, say, the cognitive features for increased sound processing, this would result in someone with the potential to be gifted in music to be born.
Why music often runs in families? It could also have to do with other bodily functions. As vocal cords are also hereditary, it would make sense why children of musicians end up getting into music themselves.
What separates highly intellectual people from geniuses? Genius can be both a noun and a verb. In the verb sense, I think everyone is capable of acting and thinking like a genius (If not a mastermind).
I am now referring to it as a noun: People who don’t need to try and act like a genius because they are one. The simple act of them performing any action will result in their genius being expressed. Take this article for instance. I myself am writing this all in a few attempts. The only reason I need to reread what I wrote is to see what I have already said. Though most of this article was written on my first attempt, so this article should act as a representative to my own intelligence.
So, what makes a highly intelligent person is typically someone who focuses solely on IQ. I don’t discredit Mensa-like individuals for their importance as we need people like this in the world. I just feel as though that is one club which has a narrow view of what intelligence is.
What if our job was simply coming up with ideas which individuals with high IQ’s can determine how to utilize. I say high IQ’s because as far as gifted in concerned we need those borderline types to help translate us to the world. Mr. Tomasio does a good job of that for me. He is a very effective editor/"translator". He is like google translate for intelligence.
Now, Let’s talk about what gifted actually means. Gifted is nothing more than being different from most people and it refers to people who have self actualized it and applied being different as a part of themselves. That is why being gifted isn’t limited to IQ.
What, then, separates genius from gifted? I believe XQ represents the scale which separates highly intelligent from genius. Experiential intelligence is when you learn through experience. I can’t be told what to do or how to do it. Now I do what I have done in the past and liked while avoiding those things which I have done which have brought about negativity with them. Thus, XQ utilizes photographic memory as one aspect of it. I will almost always remember an experience I had which had positive emotions attached to it.
Most people will admit a doctor is smart. Smart being nothing more than a noun to describe someone like a status symbol. Smart is about memorizing and using knowledge effectively.
Between me having different expressions than most people I often was left out of the herd mentality. I’m a pandora’s box of various mental illnesses, yet most of them have symptoms which can get annoying so I choose to stay medicated to deal with some of the symptoms. My spelling became horrible and I occasionally have difficulty keeping all my own thoughts organized. But both things don’t fully impact me most of the time. Just occasionally have hiccups.
I did have a point in bringing up mental illnesses: Through the happenstance of having the experiences that I had with the genetics that I have, I went out and experienced life nonetheless. Sadly, at the time I had been dealing with some neurological damage, I was unable to process any of my experiences. For those 20 years of neurological damage, I didn’t take time to process my experiences as they were happening or even after. I was always on to the next thing.
This is the reason why I don’t construct problems in my own mind, meaning I don’t see things as problems ever. Is anything ever seriously a problem when you can imagine how to do anything with any particular thing?
I exist in a world of possibilities. I’m learning the lesson of determining which possibility to pursue. I want to do them all but only just met someone, Mr. Tomasio, who is intelligent enough to figure out how to put my words into actions. I hope one day our work will diversify beyond articles.
I believe the separation between gifted and intelligent is as simple as imagination. I am not saying every child in a genius. What I am saying is children are using their own brains like a genius does, by tapping into their creative sides and inventing whole worlds in their own minds.
At what point do adults stop using their imaginations? Geniuses are good at imagining things in the right way. Though this does raise a good question: Is imagination what separates a highly intelligent person from a genius? What if the education system also included a part on utilizing one's imagination effectively? There is the secret to genius: A person with different cognitive features which can utilize creativity. I can thank a few parts of my genetics for being able to do just that.
A test theory for you: Next time you come across something you are unfamiliar with try and imagine all the things you can do with it. Don’t worry if your answers are right or wrong. Simply appreciate the creativity that you could have.
What makes a genius is someone who leans more towards the right/correct side with their thoughts. I can imagine what is possible because of my polymathy and experiential intelligence are able to use all my past knowledge to dictate where something can go. Actions speak louder than words is how it goes I believe.
So, the advice I will give is this: if anyone wants to start thinking like a genius all they have to do is nurture their imagination. Imagination is a byproduct of the brain. You nurture it by adding content to it for it to use. Genius thoughts don’t come from nowhere even though they possess the ability to use creativity to come up with possible solutions to things.
I don’t regret any experience that I have had. My point to all this is to explain the importance of evaluating your experiences. After all, we can all act like we have polymathy by learning as much as possible. You never know when you can use it.
Perhaps I would even recommend recording every experience you have. Think of it like blogging. This puts the experience out there and can cause open discussion to help you process each of them.
We as humans should make processing experiences a group activity. It makes the experience real by making other people aware of it. Otherwise, what good are actions if nobody knows about them? That is the way the world moves and things "become real". Sharing an experience makes it more objective which is the point of philosophy I believe: To make things more objective.
I was never identified as a genius because my actions never reflected it. So, I spent my entire life unaware of it. Discovering it at age 35 has given me a first hand perspective of what it actually is: Genius is not a status symbol. It simply means that your brain processes things differently than most people. You process things through creative eyes.
If you want to think like a genius, work on creative thinking. Anyone can learn to be a genius. However, it would involve changing a person's fundamentals which is not an easy task for most people.
The thing which ultimately helped me learn control was golfing. Is it possible to be a savant in a sport? If so, then why savantism have to be limited to art or music? I get why it is primarily seen in those areas. If you had an explosion of creativity happen you probably would as well. As I did have intelligence to accompany the savant within me, I have decided to express it in the written word. I figured out the best way to talk about the savant and intelligence thing was to do it through my actions.
Producing my content into an article seemed to be the best expression of intelligence which I could think of. I have some minor neurological damage when I speak. I get the occasional stutter which most people don’t place much value in because of how slow I must speak. My fingers on the other hand are not impacted with this problem, and can type without a stutter.
