What genius, either living or dead, would you most like to meet? What would you ask this person?
TLT Sounding Board September 2013
Not surprising for a society of scientists, Albert Einstein was mentioned most often as the genius TLT readers would most like to meet. Readers were fascinated by Einstein’s creative insights and ability to translate them into practical applications. As an interesting side note, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, bitter rivals best known for their War of the Currents, nearly tied for second, with the Serbian-born scientist garnering one more vote than the Wizard of Menlo Park. Also receiving multiple votes were Thomas Jefferson, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. Asked to define the word genius, many readers cited the ability to envision a concept in a given discipline unseen by others. Nearly two-thirds of TLT readers say they have met a genius.
Albert Einstein. What made you think of explaining e=mc
2?
I’d talk to Karl Benz to get background information about his first motor-driven car. What was the motivation/ driver of his invention?
Charles Darwin. How to break free so completely from the orthodox, and come up with such a simple, durable and correct interpretation at the core of biology.
N.R. Narayana Murthy to know the secret behind his success. How difficult was it to leave Infosys, an organization he built?
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore. He is a results oriented taskmaster who gets things done when promised!
It would be interesting to meet Fritz Haber, who made many inventions in synthesis of ammonia and poisonous gases. He managed his knowledge of chemistry excellently, turning that into fertilizers or poisons, whatever his country needed. His patriotism led to major advances in industrial chemistry, for which he got the Nobel Prize, as well as to major tragedies not only in his own family but in the world.
John LeCarre because he consistently produces fabulously engaging detective novels with the ultimate combination of sophisticated writing and consciousness of the human condition—individual as well as social.
Steve Jobs. What was your vision in the beginning that resulted in such big changes in our lives?
Thomas Edison because I don’t understand the simplicities/difficulties in the way electricity operates. I would hope he could get me started from scratch.
Erwin Schrodinger. I would ask him how he maintained his sanity whilst solving quantum mechanical equations without a computer. Those things used to take me several hours and 20-30 pages per problem.
Aristophanes. I have nothing to ask, I’d just shake hands.
Nikola Tesla. How he did a number on Edison with AC current.
John Bardeen, two-time Nobel Laureate, because he had far-ranging insight I am told. I would ask him, “What are the technologies that will be important in 10 years?
Thomas Jefferson. I would love to understand the true reasons why the Founding Fathers constructed the U.S. government and the Constitution as they did.
Albert Einstein because of his uncanny synthesis of scientific philosophy and belief in simplicity. I would ask him who were his role models and mentors and how they influenced his life and work.
Nikola Tesla. Unlike other giants, his tremendous contributions were not known to many people after his death until very recently. My question: What made you a master of electricity?
Albert Einstein. Do you think that there was a cause to the Big Bang and what is the significance of the position in either case?
Thomas Edison. His creation of an inventors group and the number of innovations coming from it is astounding. How did he envision it and then manage it?
Abraham Lincoln. I would ask about his people management skills.
Tough to answer but I think Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein share equal billing in my mind. I’d ask Newton what drove him to create calculus. For Einstein, I’d ask how he came to use thought experiments so effectively.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming. I would ask him to discuss his beginning thoughts into manufacturing excellence.
Johann Sebastian Bach. Because he wrote beautiful, well-structured and simultaneously complex music in a way nobody has done before and after him.
Albert Einstein. What drove you to even think of anything so far out of the box as your relativity theory?
Mark Twain. He would be wonderful to listen to. I’d ask him to tell me a story.
The President Bushes. Both of them—how did you get here?
Albert Einstein. I would like to ask him his thoughts on String Theory, the Einstein-Rosen Bridge and the possibility of manufacturing wormholes based upon all the available information of today’s world.
Thomas Jefferson. Seemed like a brilliant guy but a hard partier, too!
I was always an admirer of both Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse—Tesla for his blazing eccentric genius when it came to innovations to electromechanical applications and Westinghouse to realize Tesla was correct and add his own technical genius to make it all practical and economically feasible. I guess I would tend toward George.
Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes. How does this equation thing work?
Albert Einstein. I would like his take on global warming theories.
Dale Carnagie, Steve Jobs, Tony Robbins, Henry Ford, Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, Conrad Black, Zig Ziglar and Steve Bazak and also my grandparents. How were you able to do it? What steps did you take to become successful? What challenges did you face and what did you learn from them? How did you turn them into opportunities? What mistake did you make?
Albert Einstein. Because of his ability to think and express his thoughts to further knowledge. I would ask him about his thought process to solve problems and create formulas for problem solving.
Leonardo da Vinci. He had the artistic capability to present his ideas to the masses and preserve the ideas as his own. Why did you not engage more craftsmen to reduce your innovations to practice?
Warren Buffett as he looks at the total picture of business and life.
Larry Ellison of Oracle because aside from being insightful he’s straightforward. I would ask him how his intellect has evolved—is he better at solving problems, predicting trends, etc.
Albert Einstein. He was always thinking on ways to improve life around him. I would ask him...shoot, I don’t know!
Walt Disney or Warren Buffett—why did they choose the paths they did?
Nikola Tesla. No explanation needed.
Have you ever met a genius?
Yes
64%
No
36%
Based on responses sent to 13,000 TLT readers.
What is your definition of genius?
A brilliant person who is constantly creative but also slightly unbalanced.
A person with bright visions that can be transferred to reality-generating benefits for general welfare.
A person with clear and far-reaching vision and capacity for reasoning or creation far removed from the daily grind.
The major distinction of a genius is creativity. In science a genius is able to propose the relationships between confusing observations and create hypothesis to explain unanswered questions.
Clear, knowledgeable and researching mind.
A smart, intelligent person.
One who comes out with a winning formula when the going gets tough.
One who does things in an unusual or unique way. To understand wisely and execute wisely.
A prolific innovator.
An individual whose skills and accomplishments break new ground, create new paradigms and lead entire international communities of colleagues.
Someone with an IQ of 160 or more.
Someone who knows where to get answers.
A forward thinker who can see a big picture but is able to do the small things to forward the dream.
Someone who grasps a problem readily, has the unique insight on how to solve it and the practical smarts to assemble available stuff to solve in a way that nobody else can.
Someone who knows a lot about everything.
Someone who can rationalize and reason brilliantly in the moment it’s happening to any and every situation that arises.
Somebody who has a vision and is willing to follow it in spite of the naysayers. Someone who can see something and make something a reality that others have not even considered.
Anyone who can figure out all the potential effects of their actions and decisions ahead of time and take steps to minimize the negative impact.
Someone who can discover/utilize hidden principles.
The ability to see data in a way that opens new areas of inquiry to a field of study.
The rare ability to see and think things differently than others, not to be swayed by the conventional wisdom, to go beyond thinking out of the box.
Original thinking.
Exceptional insight in a field—not just calculation capability but also synthesis.
One who has been able to link seemingly separate ideas into a new or advanced concept and, more important, can communicate the ideas clearly.
Someone with a unique perspective that creates an item or an idea that is universally accepted as good. A person who can do what most of us cannot. A mind that works at a higher capacity and creates or educates from a new and better perspective. A problem solver and innovator.
Somebody who can do something at a very abstract level, rationally or by instinct, which also has validity for cases not already conceived.
The ability to think out of the box and then explain it to those who cannot think that far.
Someone who sees and experiences the same things the rest of us do but puts them together differently in his or her mind on a regular basis. They come up with completely new ideas from the old.
The ability to take knowledge and apply it for the benefit of people and for profit.
Someone with mental abilities that go far beyond the abilities of someone with above-average intelligence.
A person that thinks on their feet. Listens to understand then speaks to be understood.
Extreme competency and knowledge in their area of expertise.
A problem solver. Someone who can look at a problem and come up with several possible solutions.
Someone who can see a problem or a process and reinvent it without being dragged down by the current convention, seeing things in a new way.
Someone in the top 1 percent of IQ in the world.
Some who thinks out of the box and who accomplishes things that most don’t even dream of.
Someone with an inventive mind who is willing to work harder than most to come up with an elegant solution.
Pretty much have to go with the high IQ.
Vast pool of knowledge helps.
Someone who has a profound effect on Mankind.
Someone able to use advanced knowledge and skills to accomplish extraordinary feats and change the world in the process. Superior vision into the future and perseverance is usually a requirement to be a genius.
Someone who has the ability to problem-solve in multiple disciplines, create new technologies to solve problems and share this knowledge without expecting celebrity.
It does not mean to me the highest IQ but in general developing new thoughts or technology that was not previously known.
Someone that thinks about things at a different level than the average Joe.
High level of mental understanding and intuition well beyond the scope of knowledge gained through study, reading or experience.
Someone who excels in an intellectually challenging field without having to put in the time and effort that an average person would require.
Someone who dares to think differently than others in the face of truth.
FOR FURTHER READING:
Want to know more about some of our TLT readers’ favorite geniuses? Following are a few recommended books that are worth checking out:
Thomas Jefferson
•
Jefferson and His Time, by Dumas Malone
•
American Sphinx (1996), by Joseph J. Ellis
•
Twilight at Monticello (2008), by Alan Pell Crawford
Charles Darwin
•
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809-1882
•
Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man
Albert Einstein
•
Einstein: His Life and Universe
Abraham Lincoln (there are more than 15,000 books that have been written about Lincoln, but you can check out the 25 best books
here)
Isaac Newton
•
Isaac Newton, by James Gleick
•
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World
•
Never At Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
Johann Sebastian Bach
•
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
•
Johann Sebastian Bach: Life & Work
•
Glory and Honor: The Music and Artistic Legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach
Mark Twain
•
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume I & II
•
Mark Twain: A Life
George Westinghouse
•
A Life of George Westinghouse
•
George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius
•
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
Nikola Tesla
•
My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
•
Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century
•
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius
Thomas Edison
•
The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World
•
Edison: His Life and Inventions: The Complete Work
•
Edison: A Life of Invention
Henry Ford
•
The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century
•
My Life and Work, An Autobiography of Henry Ford
•
Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress
Dale Carnegie
•
Self-help Messiah: Dale Carnegie and Success in Modern America
•
How to Win Friends and Influence People
•
Dale Carnegie: The Man Who Influenced Millions
Leonardo da Vinci
•
Leonardo da Vinci, by Kenneth Clark & Martin Kemp
•
Leonardo: The Artist and the Man
Warren Buffett
•
Warren Buffett: A Biography
•
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
•
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
Steve Jobs
•
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
•
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different
•
Steve Jobs: The Man Behind the Machine
Walt Disney
•
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (Vintage)
•
Walt Disney: An American Original
•
The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney
What would your reaction be if someone could wave a magic wand and make you a genius?
Absolutely! I’m sure it will improve my life in almost all ways.
69%
No thanks. I’ve got enough problems and this sounds like a good way to make things worse.
31%
Based on responses sent to 13,000 TLT readers.
Editor’s Note: Sounding Board is based on an e-mail survey of 13,000 TLT readers. Views expressed are those of the respondents and do not reflect the opinions of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. STLE does not vouch for the technical accuracy of opinions expressed in Sounding Board, nor does inclusion of a comment represent an endorsement of the technology by STLE.