Reply #97: Depends on how you define genius. If you define it as simply [View All]

a certain score on a number of factors according to a test, then to some extent at least, that may be genetic. But if you define it as unusual creativity or as having the ability to make a unique positive difference in the world, then it is made and not born.

And some of the factors are not exactly "environmental" or a question of education or training. Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers points out that Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and several other men who are recognized as geniuses because of the key roles they played in developing the internet were born between 1953 and 1956. That's simply a matter of being born at the right time. Of course a lot of other factors played a role in developing their "genius" such as the fact that Bill Gates attended a private school where he had early access to computers. The children in my neighborhood would never have that advantage.

I liked the book Outliers but as I said some people do not.