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Default Sheer Luck Is All It Takes To Be A Genius

Sheer Luck Is All It Takes To Be A Genius


by Steve Sailer on April 06, 2010


"What does it take to be a genius?


"Europeans of the Romantic Era tended to ascribe the accomplishments of the great to an inborn spark. In contrast, in this age in which voracious competitiveness must rationalize itself in politically correct terms, American self-help books, such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and David Shenk’s The Genius in All of Us, denigrate the importance of talent. They even go to the comic extreme of citing Mozart, who could compose music as fast as he could jot it down, as evidence for the overwhelming dominance of nurture over nature.


To reach the pinnacles of achievement, to be, out of the 100 billion
or so humans who have ever lived, one of the few hundred individuals
to be remembered by one name—to be a Mozart, a Beethoven, a Bach—does
it help to have innate talent? How about ten thousand hours of
practice? An intense work ethic? An obsessive personality? A
supportive family? A conducive culture? Role models? Personal
connections? Energy? Being in the right place at the right time? Not
dying before adulthood? Sheer luck?

Yes.

Few of the all-time greats were fortunate enough to have every single
one of these factors in abundance, but they typically had more than a
few. Nobody can accomplish all that solely on his own. Conversely, no
family, culture, or state can concoct a genius without a unique
individual.

Consider the top composers of Western classical music, as ranked in
Charles Murray’s 2003 book Human Accomplishment.

“In most fields, the greats generally emerge during specific
efflorescences. The advantages of being in the right time and place
can be immense, especially before electronic communications.”


Murray objectively toted up the “most eminent” figures in 21 arts and
sciences by counting reference work citations. At first glance,
Murray’s methodology appears suspect. Why should we listen to the
opinion of reference book writers? Yet, it works, because scholars try
to make a coherent cause-and-effect story out of history by recounting
who influenced whom.

Thus, the importance of, say, Beethoven is attested to by his impact
upon Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Liszt, and Schumann, which
the historians merely record. (I suppose you could argue that those
later composers really weren’t so good either, and that the received
musical history of the last two hundred years is just a big Dan Brown-
worthy conspiracy among the Beethoven Fan Club to distract attention
from the true greats. Still, you can always just listen to his music.)

In Murray’s tabulation, the six most influential composers are
Beethoven and Mozart (tied for first), followed by Bach, Wagner,
Haydn, and Handel.

You’ll note that they were all born in German-speaking countries in
the 17th through 19th Centuries. (In fact, Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven were all in Vienna at the same time in the spring of 1787.
Haydn and Mozart were friends, Haydn became Beethoven’s teacher,
although they didn’t get along, and whether Mozart and Beethoven ever
met is still disputed.)

It seems unlikely that all the best compositional talent in human
history happened to be born in a small fraction of Europe over a
fairly short spell.

Indeed, in most fields, the greats generally emerge during specific
efflorescences. The advantages of being in the right time and place
can be immense, especially before electronic communications.

Think of the difficulties besetting a hypothetical 19th Century
American with the innate talent to have been a leading orchestral
composer. For instance, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony premiered in Vienna
in 1808, but didn’t make it to America until 1842, by which point it
was old hat in Europe.

Moreover, after first hearing Beethoven’s Ninth in 1846, American
critics complained that his famous “Ode to Joy” melody sounded like
“Yankee Doodle Dandy.” America just didn’t quite offer the kind of
cultural atmosphere helpful toward becoming a great art music
composer. Instead, 19th Century American prodigies such as Stephen
Foster, John Philip Sousa, and Scott Joplin took the lead in less
august forms of music.

And, yet, the notion that golden age German-speakers enjoyed some
genetic advantages in musical talent is not implausible. Their music-
centered culture would have encouraged assortative mating among the
musically gifted.

Most famously, the The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
lists 80 distinguished musicians from 1550 to 1850 with the surname of
“Bach.” (Nobody knows how many descendants of the clan’s daughters
bore other last names.) They weren’t stars until the generation after
Johann Sebastian, but they did all right for themselves.

The musicality of the Bachs wasn’t an accident. The Bachs usually
married daughters of other families in the church music business,
girls who were musically literate enough to copy scores for them.

For example, Johann Sebastian Bach’s first wife (by whom he had seven
children, two of whom became famous composers) was his second cousin.
After her death, his second wife (by whom he had 13 children, two of
them prominent composers) was the daughter of a well-known trumpeter
and herself a singer of some renown.

How could he afford that?

Well, there were a lot of jobs for musicians. In the early 16th
Century, Martin Luther had exuberantly advocated vocal music for the
masses, which necessitated professional leadership.

As we are discovering about human evolution, you get more of what you
pay for. "

http://www.takimag.com/article/what_...o_be_a_genius/
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Default Sheer Luck Is All It Takes To Be A Genius

On Apr 7, 10:06*pm, Bret L wrote:
Sheer Luck Is All It Takes To Be A Genius


Bratzi should go buy a wheelbarrow full of four-leaf clovers and hope
for "moderately intelligent".
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