<p>I think there is a certain “ceiling” you can get to with hard work, and those with more natural intelligence have a higher ceiling. Kinda like how some athletes have more natural ability than others.</p>
<p>Depends on how fruitful “hard work” is. The genius will find the shortest, most elegant solution to a problem that requires the least work (I’ve seen this a lot in hard olympiad math problems or in programming). The hard worker may find a solution that still works, but is far less efficient.</p>
<p>I remember a few quips on the subject:</p>
<p>[Impatience</a>, hubris, and laziness are the three virtues of a programmer.](<a href=“http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris]Impatience”>http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris)</p>
<p>working smarter > working harder</p>
<p>diligent genius > lazy genius > lazy idiot > diligent idiot, because working hard to screw things up is worse than doing nothing.</p>
<p>From personal experience, I’m most productive when doing nothing because that’s when my mind can wander into new ideas. When I’m working and I want to be more productive, the most productive thing I can do is to stop working.</p>
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<p>Well, at least I’m better than someone.</p>
<p>New episode of naruto came out today! I love killer bee and rock lee</p>
<p>Actually genius is not as prevalent as you guys think. I daresay of 100 students who go to Harvard, only 20 at the most are truly geniuses, and the rest are hard workers. Yes, these geniuses are destined to do something big, but ONLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE WORKED REALLY HARD. In the end, because there are not that many geniuses in our society, one can prevail with diligence.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, am I the only one who have the feeling that the number of hard workers nowadays is so myriad that people tend to downplay their role?</p>
<p>@PKMGSoledad
I think it’s true. 99% of us are hard workers. That’s why we get frustrated so easily. Academic results don’t reflect anything. Most of the people I know who are true genius are hard workers. After certain level of hard work, a person can achieve the genius label.</p>
<p>Anyway, The number of hard workers aren’t more than 1% among us.</p>
<p>
How many geniuses do you know? Statistically, 1 in ~20,000 people is a genius. So you must go to a really large school if you know more than one genius.</p>
<p>hard work > being a genius
hard work + being a genius > hard work</p>
<p>^^^^^ At least 8.
As for school population, I go to a school with 4783 students in high school, 2320 enrolled student in grade 1-8 and another ~6900 in 3 year college.
So, basically it’s 11000+ if you count high school+college. If you are wondering how is this possible then I can’t give you answer. Our school is currently ranked 4th in our country. So, we do meet some really interesting people. Another thing, you don’t need to go to school to know genius people. lol.</p>
<p>
I highly doubt you even know what genius means.</p>
<p>Short answer: If someone is smart but too dumb to put in work, I would not consider them a genius no matter their IQ.</p>
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<p>@blahblah9393</p>
<p>You are unnecessarily got offended by something that is terribly not your business. I really hope you know them or If you don’t, just Google these names to sort out who these people are. i hope it helps. </p>
<ol>
<li>Feross Aboukhadijeh (not a famous name But yes he is a great person to talk to)</li>
<li>Gary A. Freedman (I don’t know if you know if or not, but you should definitely know him)</li>
<li>Steve Jobs (I hope you know him)</li>
<li>Jay Elliot (I really hope you know him as well)</li>
<li>Jackson Hsieh (I am not sure but you should know this person really well as him you now about every genius people in the world)</li>
<li>Jonathan Eve (woops vary familiar name)</li>
</ol>
<p>and another 2 who are not from US so, you might not recognize him or Google (google don’t have answer to everything). </p>
<p>I am not sure why you felt offended. I am not going to say anything. Just wow. People sometime gets paranoid when others don’t agree with their views. sorry to hijack your thread Yakisoba .</p>
<p>Technically if you consider a genius someone Mensa-level, then 2% of people are geniuses (98th percentile). In a typical school of 3000, that’s quite a few actually, so what drexter said is perfectly valid. Even if your standards are higher, it’s hard to tell exactly what people’s IQs are unless you go around asking them (don’t).</p>
<p>But a lot of people would say a genius is someone like Mozart or Einstein. And those geniuses actually worked extremely hard, so re: the original point of the thread, both are important.</p>
<p>umm, I forgot to add one thing. according to your counting (1 out of 20000), There are currently at least 300000 geniuses in the world. :p</p>
<p>Imagine how many people exist with the capacity to connect ideas in revolutionary ways but without exposure to such ideas.</p>
<p>Hey, who here has watched Good Will Hunting? </p>
<p>I feel like that movie is perfect for this discussion. </p>
<p>Also, how can you tell so easily the difference between a genius and a hard worker? Some would say that a boy who finishes calculus by 7th grade (a friend of mine) is a genius. Others would say he has no life and works hard.</p>
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I wouldn’t.</p>
<p>I would say that someone who invents calculus at any age is a genius.</p>
<p>Hard work can pay off.</p>
<p>I don’t think precocious children should be called geniuses. Perhaps academically mature would be a better phrase. I mean, they haven’t done anything special except do well on tests.</p>