The Genius Myth
March 2026
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An examination of the cultural myth of genius and how talent, creativity, and achievement are actually shaped by systemic factors rather than individual brilliance.
In many cases, a self-image as a ‘clever person’ simply makes you more likely to hold your incorrect opinions extremely forcefully.
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if you have ninety-nine insane ideas and the other one is gravity, congratulations. History will remember gravity. But that does suggest that there are many people out there who simply had the misfortune to have a hundred insane ideas and no good ones. Again, that distorts our idea of achievement.