“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
It was most probably this quote that laid the foundation of my inquisitive nature. But then, maybe it was something else entirely, and my mind just pieced together this explanation. The one to follow.
Maintaining extreme levels of curiosity isn’t easy, you know. You are bound to irritate someone or the other because of your overwhelming curiosity. Sometimes you might be labeled a misfit for asking that additional question; for going that extra mile when everybody else has pretty much decided to stop and end the matter then and there. When everything has already been agreed upon by everybody, there comes this sudden harsh voice of disagreement - like a gritty pebble in the mouth from a bite out of their favorite dish that leaves a putrid aftertaste.
This quote has appealed me so much, and it continues to do so. I had been brought up to be the best among my peers. This nature was drilled into me. Be at the top. Touch the sky.
Aim for the stars.
That was what everyone expected. So, I continued to aim high. Grilled myself to meet those expectations.
And, how couldn’t I? The reward was too great. I was showered with praises. I was the example that was to be followed. Parents told their children to be like me, teachers asked their students to follow in my footsteps, people told my parents how fortunate they were to have me as their kid, how success awaited me in the future. People called me an achiever and a genius. I continued to bask in the glory that was showered upon me.
It was in this backdrop, that I stumbled upon this quote and it made me realize that I was talented, maybe, but there’s no way on Earth was I a genius.
But I sure wanted to be one.
For centuries, there has been an ongoing debate about whether a genius is born or made. Research has been conducted on it and people have come up with theories like “fixed mindset” and “growth mindset.” People in the former school believe that a person’s abilities and intelligence are fixed. You either have it in you or you don’t. While the ones in the latter believe that they can be developed, provided an individual works on them. I identified myself as the latter.
So, naturally, I decided to become a genius using the code as a guide.
If we think deeper, we might realize, that since a genius can hit targets that others can’t see, that means the genius, somehow, has the ability to see those targets.
To put it in a more obvious way, it all starts with observation. A genius observes what other people don’t. David Hilbert generously remarked, “Every boy in the streets of Gottingen understands more about four-dimensional geometry than Einstein. Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did the work [General Relativity] and not the mathematicians.” It leads me to the conclusion that the path to becoming a genius involves expanding one’s field of view. And to do that, I had to get in the habit of asking myself, “what is it that I don’t see here?” over and over.
Over the course of time, this paradigm automatically gets extended on to your interactions with other people. So, when you are in a discussion, it comes to you naturally, “what is it they don’t see here?” Sometimes you get the answer immediately, other times you don’t. But when you have gone through this cycle of asking questions, searching for answers and occasionally finding them, you’ve made a dent - a dent on the mental wall that imprisons your vision. And with every dent, it now expands. One dent a at a time. Some years down the line, you will hopefully realize just how far you have come, and that the journey was worth it.
The journey would not be easy, you won’t have all the answers, people might call you crazy, a part of you would want to let go. If you find yourself in a corner, dear reader, and trust me you will; just remember why you set out on this path in the first place. And, hopefully, you will gain the courage to fight back.
Thank you, Abhimanyu Sood, for reviewing the inital draft and for your suggestions.
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