“I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.”
— Aleister Crowley
One of the handful of things I spend an excessive amount of time thinking about is, “what is smart?”
I’m not sure anyone really knows.
Is it academic achievement? No, I’ve seem fairly unintelligent people get good grades.
Is it knowing a lot of information? Probably not. And we have Google, so it’s not even that valuable anymore.
Is it being well-spoken? Definitely not. I’ve met people who are great at saying things, but have nothing intelligent to say.
So if we can’t define “smart,” it seems like it would be even more difficult to define “genius.” And that’s weird because we all think we can properly identify it when we see it.
What I do know for sure is that whatever “genius” is, which we will for the moment define as “being very smart,” it’s something attainable in the realm of expertise.
One of the things I really enjoy teaching people is a renaissance-era method of studying that can make anyone an expert. People who want to become experts use it, and experts who want to maintain their edge use it.
I’m not saying that in order to sell you something, but to inspire you. Don’t let anything hold you back. Get what you need and get going. If you can get smart, you can get anything.