Throughout most of the recorded history there have been individuals who through their exceptional achievements captured the imagination and admiration of the general public. Oftentimes their unique abilities were appreciated far beyond the circles of their field of expertise, and in many cases they had become popular icon. They are particularly easy to identify in the fields that require extraordinary amount of technical expertise, such as sciences and arts. Today we call such individuals geniuses, although that is a relatively recently coined term.

By the very definition of the term, there are only very few geniuses around and hence it is hard to do a systematic and methodical study of genius. This very short introduction (VSI) aims to shed some light on this subject, and it uses several approaches to accomplish this goal. There is no doubt that geniuses are endowed with exceptional intellectual abilities, but extremely high intelligence doesn’t seem to be either a sufficient or the necessary prerequisite for being a genius. Most people who occupy the very top of the IQ measure are not considered geniuses in the strict sense of the word, and many bona fide geniuses have been known for performing unremarkably on IQ tests. There are a few intriguing biographical circumstances that seem to be common amongst the geniuses. A disproportionate number of them, as compared to the general population, come from either extremely nurturing or extremely unstable family backgrounds. Brilliant writers seem to be more prone to bipolar disorders. On the other hand, there are enough exceptions to these rules of thumb to render any unified theory of genius untenable.

This book is very informative and well written. If you are interested in reading more about intelligence in its own right than I would recommend Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction. In my opinion the most authoritative account of genius is Charles Murray’s Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. That’s the book that you should read if you are interested into learning about genius in more depth, but it is also technically formidable work.