{"id":1338,"date":"2012-04-28T01:21:33","date_gmt":"2012-04-28T05:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2012-04-28T01:21:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-28T05:21:33","slug":"genius-draws-circles-and-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1338","title":{"rendered":"Genius draws circles and lines!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this report<\/a> on Nightline a few hours ago.  I thought it was too funny to not comment on it.<\/p>\n

\n

Padgett doesn\u2019t have a PhD, a college degree or even a background in math.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Because it\u2019s long been believed that one cannot draw or even understand geometric shapes without a vast mathematical background.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI see bits and pieces of the Pythagorean theorem everywhere\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you really want to seem like a genius, it shouldn’t be hard to get on Wikipedia and find some less commonly known theorem names to name-drop.  Like \u201cI see representations of Pappus\u2019s theorem everywhere, mixed with Levi graphs and Cremona-Richmond configurations.  Oh, sorry, is my genius blowing your mind?  I just can\u2019t turn it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Padgett can draw a visual representation of the formula Pi, that infinite number that begins with 3.14.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So… he can draw a circle with some lines through it.  Amazing.  (Also, pi is not a formula.  And since when is \u201cinfinite number\u201d an acceptable description of an irrational number?)<\/p>\n

Anyway, aside from the fact that the products of \u201cgenius\u201d here are not very impressive in and of themselves (reports of musical genius savants are far more interesting), what really annoys me about reports like this is that they make it seem like a desired skill set is out of one\u2019s conscious control.  It makes genius-ness seem like a \u201cgift\u201d that you either have to be given or can never get.  And I believe this is a very bad notion for the world to accept, because it results in a lot of people missing out on their potentials because they\u2019ve been taught that they don\u2019t even exist.  Which is complete rubbish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this report on Nightline a few hours ago.  I thought it was too funny to not comment on it. Padgett doesn\u2019t have a PhD, a college degree or even a background in math. Because it\u2019s long been believed that one cannot draw or even understand geometric shapes without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-lA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}