The qualities of social isolation and absent-mindedness have been evident in the great geniuses throughout history. Isaac Newton was so intelligent that he had difficulty relating to his peers, and became increasingly solitary through his adolescent years. This isolation enabled him to pursue his experiments with intensity as he sublimated his need for human interaction with a need to uncover nature’s secrets. Unfortunately, Newton’s solitary nature, together with an excessive sensitivity to criticism had made him reluctant to publish anything. In a letter on November 18, 1676 he asserted:
I will resolutely bid adieu to it [further publication] except what I do for my private satisfaction, or leave to come out after me [after my death] for I see a man must either resolve to put out nothing new, or become a slave to defend it.
Consequently, by the time he reached 40 years of age, his work was relatively unknown to the scientific community. In 1684, astronomer Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame) visited Cambridge to ask Newton whether it was possible to derive Kepler’s laws from some basic principles. Newton recalled that he had already done so, but hadn’t published it. At Halley’s request, Newton sketched his derivation of these laws in a paper titled On the Motion of Bodies in an Orbit in which he used differential calculus (originally called fluxions) that he had invented during his plague-enforced leave from Cambridge. Recognizing the importance of this discovery, Halley hounded and cajoled Newton to publish all his discoveries about planetary motion in a comprehensive work that Halley would fund. Finally, in 1687 Newton revealed these observations and derivations in a treatise titled, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known today as Principia. This treatise came to be regarded by scientists in the centuries that followed as perhaps, the greatest publication in the history of science. Newton’s isolation was an asset rather than a liability because it gave him an opportunity to think independently and make discoveries that sometimes ran counter to consensus.
Newton’s absent-mindedness was a manifestation of his ability to marshal all of his intellectual attention on a problem and exclude all distractions. Early in life, Newton had displayed a remarkable power of concentration and intense focus that would render him entirely unaware of his immediate surroundings. In traveling home from Grantham, to Woolsthorpe by horse, it was necessary to dismount at Spittlegate hill, lead the horse up the steep hill, and then remount at the top. On one occasion, while deep in thought, Isaac dismounted at the bottom of the hill and forgot to remount–unaware that the horse had slipped from his bridle and bolted. On arriving home, bridle in hand, he scratched his head, pondering the whereabouts of his horse. There are several humorous stories about Newton’s absent-mindedness, each one reflecting his prodigious power of concentration.
Social isolation and absent-mindedness are common consequences of extremely high intelligence. The former is often an asset and the latter a manifestation. Einstein was relatively isolated through most of his life and constantly asserted to his wife, Elsa, “Keep people away, I need my peace [to concentrate].” His isolation helped him formulate ideas that ran counter to the popular consensus among his peers.
