Perhaps unrelated, but I wonder who these mentors were in the case of people like da Vinci, Socrates, Archimedes, Newton et al. They must have had some adults who guided them toward what they're known for. It seems absurd to believe that they just happened to grow up like that. It's as if everybody today, once you skim the "Early Life" section, it turns out had something fantastic, like a mother who was a Fields medalist, or uncle who invented this or that. The more that I see, the more I'm of the opinion that "genius" is simply:
1. effort, usually from youth, that nobody knows about so it appears to be innate
2. the effort is motivated and guided by some mentor(s), usually people with serious qualifications, like your Fields medalist uncle deciding to take you under his wing, after you said "math is fun :D" one time at 7 years old when he told you his job was "to do math :)" upon you asking him as children like to do, and turn you into a Fields-winning adult
This reminds me of those people who pretend they're a genius because they can guess the day of the week if you give them a date, when the reality is that anybody can learn to do that because it's just an algorithm[1] that you can calculate in your head and practice to the point that you come off as if you have a photographic memory or something.
Due to mental illness, I've spent 22-23 hours of my day for the last 4.5 years in bed on my smartphone. I only leave for food & bathroom. My BMI has been 17-19 for the entire period, but I worry whether I'm causing permanent damage. My body constantly aches and I tire easily. I feel like an old man, yet I'm 27. I began to have what I assume is Restless Leg Syndrome after a few months, with a constant desire to tense or move my legs. I hope that this horrible lifestyle will not burden me with lasting unforeseen health problems even when I begin to exercise and live again.
I did see a counselor for about 6 months, and I was kicked out in June, as they believed I required a higher level of care, such as an intensive outpatient program and/or an SSRI.
I've attempted to read books on OCD. I've attempted Exposure-Response Prevention on my own with limited success. I reach a wall. I don't want to experience the seemingly endless stress that I'd endure from the most significant exposures and I shutdown.
I do know that Von Neumann was privileged, with a wealthy father.
You misunderstand. I poorly use the term of "blue collar" as a mindset, and not to their socioeconomic status. It's definitely not the ideal term.
I disagree with your words on perfectionism. I believe that their work exists in spite of their neurosis.
Van Gogh, Von Neumann, Bach, The Beatles; all of these people were industrious with exceptional outputs. Van Gogh is famous for it, as he discusses his process in his letters, adopting the ethic of farmers, painting quickly & in poor weather, et cetera.
It's not relevant anyway. It was an excuse to preach. I did not intend to submit the parent and, as usual, regret it.
I mostly agree, but you are viewing ideal conditions in a macro-economical manner; perhaps whatever your society encouraged. Bach lived in a time and place where being a composer was a matter of finding a church to employ him, or "serving a court", et cetera. Were these ideal conditions for becoming a composer? They are, but it's a bit lame to say "Well, if I were born in 17th century Austria, I could be a great baroque composer, but in 2022, my society just doesn't encourage that." It's trivial.
People usually are conforming their interests to their society. Most people are not dreaming of being baroque composers today, but perhaps audio engineers, or whatever. The Beatles are a product of their time. They saw what was being encouraged, and it influenced them. A Beatles does not exist today because our society does not encourage it.
Frankly, there exist many contemporary painters who I consider clearly superior to Van Gogh, and their society thought so as well. For whatever reason, our society doesn't value them as much as him. Our views have reversed.
I do not know if this makes sense at all. I'm sure that I'll see this tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking.
It's a problem to say this because it's just a truism. Genius implies some sort of exceptional work; seeing what nobody thought to look for. People aren't geniuses. They produce genius. Von Neumann was clearly exceptional, but was he "a genius"? His output was exceptional. He planted seeds and definitely did not wait for ideal conditions. We may debate the legends of his cognitive abilities - eidetic memory - but he absolutely was a "workaholic". He never won a Nobel Prize or a Fields Medal, as if to imply his output was not of the quality of genius.
You see this behavior in many communities; fantasizing. Visit www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning and you will find a group of people who discuss about "language learning" and few people learning a foreign language.
The topics are always similar; "which book", "which audio course", "which foreign language", et cetera. They seek perfect conditions, and they do not exist. They fantasize about how great their life will be once they obtain these perfect conditions. Eventually, they may move on to another subject, as their interest wanes, and repeat this cycle.
It's a small club. Yes, luck is always involved, and you are not in control. Luck hits you. When the lightning strikes, you're either ready or you are not. The problem is that most people seem to behave in an exact opposite manner. They waste their life, waiting for luck to swoop them off of their feet. This is definitely wrong. You prepare yourself for when these opportunities decide to reveal themselves.
It's like saying "I'm not going to begin to exercise and attract a partner until I meet them first" - a recipe for failure. You must become the attractive person, and then, when they happen to enter your life, you attract them.
They were blue-collar artists. They just tried. They did not wait for ideal conditions. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11 preaches such wisdom. They planted seeds without bothering to check the weather. Some of their seeds sprouted anyway, while those who waited for perfect weather, never planted at all, and grew nothing.
"Genius" is just practice, and deliberate at that. You don't see it. It's not some dramatic characteristic that you see in Paul McCartney, or whoever; No, John Nash was not intensely examining numbers and equations as they were dramatically floating around him like in "A Beautiful Mind". He did exactly what you do, only without the neuroticism; without the time-wasting; without the rumination.
Just plant the damned seeds. See what happens. Stop wasting your time ruminating. Imagine if Bach, or Da Vinci, Palestrina, Van Gogh, or Von Neumann decided to wait, and wait, until everything was just right, before they begin their studies/work. Nobody today would recognize those names. You would not be able to listen to Missa Papae Marcelli. It would just not exist. These people would be called "workaholics" today, an incredibly unfortunate term. Bach wrote over 1,000 pieces in his career. Van Gogh has over 900 paintings in less than 10 years.
As far as I can see at this point, "geniuses" are simply people who do not waste their time. Q3/Q4 of the Eisenhower Matrix is another planet to them. They live on the "Important" row, and they utilize that time.
To tie this into the HN community - think of the people who "want to learn to program" and yet they spend all of their time ruminating on which book to read, or language to learn, et cetera.
I do plan on moving to an unpolluted area, or at least that's what my OCD wants.
OCD is "what if?"-centric. I do try to consider that intelligent people live, typically, in polluted areas(for work or school), but is their remarkable ability in spite of that? What if they'd be better if they went off to rural Maine or wherever and worked remotely?
I also try to consider that "speed" is probably not the great determinant of who succeeds in life, but that people who are virtuous, or perhaps - have a personality conducive to being considerate & contemplative, mature, humble, confident, et cetera - is probably closer to the answer, and whether you need every last IQ point to be such person, I'm unsure. What if that is necessary?
I wish that I could just say "this isn't worth the effort. I'm not absorbing anything clinically significant. We are okay. Wash your hands like a normal person(follow CDC 6-step recommendation) and move on." and believe it & follow through.
If this were true, then it would help, but I doubt it.
The ideal is to give up on timewasting/unimportant activities(Quadrants 3&4 on Eisenhower Matrix) and try/begin important activities(Q1&2).
It is incredibly challenging, to accept uncertainty & to do what you are SURE is important & will result in a positive outcome.
If I run for 30 minutes every day then I KNOW that it is beneficial to my health. I am certain. My OCD will ruin it by suggesting that I could breathe polluted air, et cetera. By that suggestion alone, I will not run.
It's a strange dysfunction of your brains executive/decision ability. I value what I am not certain of MORE than what I am certain of.
It is my goal to reverse that logic & when your brain is working against you, it feels as if you're swimming against a current.
I'm not sure if this is directly related, but: I have PTSD & OCD, and when I peruse Google Scholar for information about toxicology, or the effects of air pollution on the brain, or how cats potentially carry T. Gondii & can infect you, or how we absorb things such as BHT transdermally through our hands from holding a cars polymer steering wheel, et cetera; I feel that it fuels my mental illness in a great way. If I did not possess all of this information, then I'd probably be significantly moreso functional than I am.
It feels as if they are "information hazards" as I act exactly as the people do in your aneurysm example; I wash my hands for 10+ minutes when the risk is probably nominal, and so on. That 0.5% risk from your example absolutely "plays on my mind".
>"you'll never win a Nobel prize if you don't decontaminate your hands because the pollutant will absorb through your skin, into your blood, and then into your brain, and probably lower your IQ!"
Youe title is horrible. The study states that caffeine reduces GMV in the medial Temporal Lobe, irrespective of sleep quality, and that this reduction is increased with an increase in caffeine.
1. effort, usually from youth, that nobody knows about so it appears to be innate
2. the effort is motivated and guided by some mentor(s), usually people with serious qualifications, like your Fields medalist uncle deciding to take you under his wing, after you said "math is fun :D" one time at 7 years old when he told you his job was "to do math :)" upon you asking him as children like to do, and turn you into a Fields-winning adult
This reminds me of those people who pretend they're a genius because they can guess the day of the week if you give them a date, when the reality is that anybody can learn to do that because it's just an algorithm[1] that you can calculate in your head and practice to the point that you come off as if you have a photographic memory or something.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule