There is no metric for identifying genius. A person is regarded as a genius if they have produced a work of art or advanced a scientific theory that is seen as a new breakthrough in their field. In science, it’s a theory or discovery that changes the existing paradigm. When Newton advanced his theory of universal gravitation and used this assumption to derive Kepler’s Laws mathematically, he created the basis of modern science. When Einstein rejected the idea that time is absolute and then used mathematics to predict the slow decay of mesons traveling near the speed of light, he revolutionized the way we understand space and time.
In the arts, a person who achieves an entirely new level of representation that people judge as substantially superior to the current forms, is perceived as a genius. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s understanding of physiology and the shadows cast by the facial muscles when expressing emotion, enabled him to represent facial expressions that conveyed human feeling with exceptional realism. Combining this with his knowledge of perspective, enabled him to paint portraits that most art historians regard as reaching a level beyond the others of his era.
However, the attribution of “genius” is a collective judgment that is subject to dispute. Was Mozart a genius? How about Beethoven? Can we assert that one genius is superior to another in the same field? Was Einstein a “greater” genius than Feynman? Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, asserted that geniuses were not people with special talent, but people who merely worked harder than others.
The difference between someone who is extremely good at something and someone who is regarded a genius is somewhat arbitrary, and changes over time. Perhaps the best distinction between someone is is merely good at something and a genius was best described by Arthur Schopenhauer, “Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.” For more information, visit: What’s the difference between a highly intelligent person and a Genius? – Intelligence and IQ
