Opinion: What does genius really mean?

To the editor: Author Eric Weiner distinguishes extremely knowledgeable people from true geniuses.

( “If everyone’s a genius, is anyone a genius?” Opinion, Sept. 25)

But I think most geniuses actually come from a different world — they are often persons who make contributions in a field of knowledge despite lacking formal training or professional connections. For example, look to Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Samuel Morse.

Geniuses also distinguish themselves by accepting the risk of an unconventional approach.

By contrast, the know-it-all runs the risk, as the joke goes, of “knowing more and more about less and less.”

William K. Solberg, Los Angeles

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To the editor: A good test for “genius” might be performance of the following: Before he (or she) did what he did, no one could imagine it; after he did what he did, no one could imagine being without it.

This excludes those

of high intelligence

whose accomplishments are nevertheless predictable.

But to me, it happily includes not just Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein (who changed how we view the world’s workings), but also William Shakespeare (who changed the way we speak about life), Ludwig van Beethoven (who gave us an entire style of music), and Louis Pasteur (who gave us vaccination).

But the test does more; it allows us to identify geniuses outside purely intellectual disciplines. For aren’t we right to call Pablo Picasso a genius? And what about Magic Johnson, who changed the game of basketball?

And so, the next time one of your workmates, classmates or friends redefine how you go about your work, studies, or play, you’ll be perfectly justified to say it was “a stroke of genius.”

Joel Karafin, Los Angeles

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To the editor: “Genius” is just a word we use to describe someone with whom we do not wish to be compared.

Tom Allen, Glendale

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