Being a genius isn't as simple as being smart or having a high IQ. While intelligence is, of course, a prerequisite of genius status, there are other things at play here – including creativity, self-awareness, and an innate ability to ask questions few others have ever asked.
However, there are certain characteristics that geniuses tend to exhibit, such as a love for learning, an intense curiosity about the world, a passion for problem-solving, and exceptional creativity and originality.
Tall signs of intelligence
The conclusion comes from a study of the DNA of 6,815 people. Of course, there are still people who are short and intelligent, plus those who are tall and dim. But, on average, there is a small association between being taller and having higher intelligence.
For reasons not fully understood, prodigies tend to cluster in "rules-based" fields like mathematics, music, chess and art. One expert who studied prodigies estimated that they are as rare as one in five or 10 million.
Early Language Development
While most children say their first word at around 1 year of age, gifted children may begin speaking when they are 9 months old. 2 Some parents report that their children said their first word even earlier than that, as early as 6 months of age.
People who have genius traits tend to think about problems and concepts in a much more dynamic way. As a result, they are unlikely to accept information and facts on face value. Instead, they will want to defy and test conventional thinking.
Souza's study demonstrated that an individual with an IQ of 126 or higher can often learn in one hour what it would take someone with an IQ in the standard range 4-5 hours to learn. This means that gifted people can truly read and understand faster than an average person.
By not settling with one perspective, geniuses do not merely solve existing problems, they figure out new problems we tend to ignore and find mind-blowing solutions. Geniuses are open-minded. Every problem — no matter how apparently simple it may be — comes with a long list of assumptions.
Urging readers to look beyond traditional understandings of what constitutes genius, Armstrong describes 12 such qualities: curiosity, playfulness, imagination, creativity, wonder, wisdom, inventiveness, vitality, sensitivity, flexibility, humor, and joy.
Summary. Geniuses are both born and made. While genetics can explain up to 75% of variations in IQ levels, factors like socioeconomic status and home environment decide whether a person achieves their full genetic IQ potential.
Throw social commitments into the mix, and there's limited time to be alone and be still with your thoughts and creative process. It's common for people with genius qualities to seek out isolation at times, due to a social anxiety and an excessive need for “me” time, in order to practice mindfulness..
Those who find themselves easily distracted at work may be intellectually superior to their colleagues, according to research. Intelligent workers may have difficulty concentrating due to the vast number of clever ideas popping into their gifted brains.
An otherwise 'brilliant' person can be slow at solving certain problems, yes.
Geniuses have high expectations of themselves and despair quickly when they fail to produce superior results. Highly intelligent people have too many interests and tend to get bored easily.
Studies have also found that higher IQ is associated with more mental illness, including depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.
While geniuses tend to be exceptionally intelligent, they also use imagination and creativity to invent, discover or create something new within their field of interest. They break new ground rather than simply remembering or reciting existing information.
Talking to yourself, it turns out, is a sign of genius. The smartest people on earth talk to themselves. Look at the inner monologues of the greatest thinkers. Look at poetry!
What age is your mind the sharpest? The human brain attains peak processing power and memory around age 18. After studying how intelligence changes over time, scientists found that participants in their late teens had the highest performance.
Einstein famously didn't start talking until he was 3 years old. Other famous late talkers include mathematical genius Ramanujan, a nobel prize winner (Gary Becker), a US talk show host (G. Gordon Liddy) and even Mussolini.
Countless child prodigies lose interest in their area of talent and drop out; others become experts in their area as adults. Only a tiny few become creative adult “geniuses.” It is impossible to predict which course a life will take.
Like most aspects of human behavior and cognition, intelligence is a complex trait that is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Intelligence is challenging to study, in part because it can be defined and measured in different ways.
You've probably heard it before and brushed it off if you're a second, third or fourth+ child - but it's true: the eldest sibling is the smartest, according to research.