Biology and Genius

This blog post isn’t really about biology or genius. It’s about how what we are is largely biological. Really, it's about a discussion I keep having with students. Those who are college-age seem to be under the illusion that genius is the product of hard work.

I have asked why they think this. “That’s what we were taught,” one student told me. Their generation scoffs at the notion they were raised with that “everyone gets a trophy.” Yet, they kind of believe it: the playing field is level, we all start with the same smarts and abilities, and then it’s just a matter of applying oneself.

So that’s it? Michael Jordan worked the hardest? All those players in the NBA just didn’t put forth enough effort? Being the GOAT was his reward for all the hard work? It couldn’t be that he had abilities that were beyond anyone else’s. And if that’s true—and it certainly seems to be the case—then we have to look at what he was born with.

Needless to say, if you’re born with something—eye color, for example—it was baked into the cake. And it was biology that put it there. What made Michael Jordan a great basketball player was his biology. Now, I am not the person to delineate the why and what of Jordan’s greatness. It has been through conversations with people who are knowledgeable on the subject that I have acquired a sense of the details.

But I could list people who, like Jordan, had preternatural abilities: Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, Mozart, Einstein, Bobby Fischer, Noam Chomsky, Prince, Simone Biles, the list goes on. These people worked very hard to achieve what they did; but working hard won’t necessarily get one to those heights.

And really, the point is not genius. The point is where we peak. For example, I’m a lousy chess player. I could get better. I could improve. But with serious work and dedication I will only achieve the height of mediocrity. I will only peak at middling. That’s as good as it’s going to get, I’m afraid.

But I could get better. B-E-T-T-E-R. And that’s the point. Anyone can basically learn how to do anything. I’m disabled, so pole vaulting is probably out of the question. But you get my point. Anyone can more or less learn anything. You can learn how to play the guitar. Are you going to be as good as Jeff Beck? I have my doubts.

However, you could get better. And better. Where you max out might be disappointing. But that does not mean you should not learn to play. If you want to, do it. Letting Jeff Beck’s greatness stop you is silly.

There is a cruel corollary that is concomitant with this line of thinking. It’s the assertion that one’s location on the income distribution is a reflection of one’s effort. Wealth = hard work. Poverty = laziness. You get out what you put in.

Again, the playing field is level, there is no such thing as privilege or a tailwind. We all operate in a vacuum where the only thing that distinguishes one person from another is the effort made. A society that thinks this way is a vicious one.

In the case of ability or talent, we must look toward the native. Much of what we are is biological. Our intelligence. Our talents. And a good portion of our personality.

People in philosophy lose their minds at the mere mention of the word “determination.” But much of what we are is precisely that. We are linguistic. We have a moral conscience. I would also argue humans have a biological leaning toward the spiritual. And all the stuff I mentioned above. It’s biological, like having kidneys.

This does not mean our choices are determined. That one is up to you. You can learn, for example, to play chess. And while you’re learning, I’d be glad to play you. Until, of course, you get better than me—which won’t take long.

Episode 24: Descartes

 

Global Warming

 

 

 

More Stuff People Say

Some more banalities and absurdities came to mind, so I thought I would do a sequel.


11. “The government is a business.”

The government is not a business. The government is not a business. In other words, the government is not a business. It is a government. It has a Treasury. It prints money. It has a GDP. The economy does not work like your family’s budget. When the money’s tight, you hit the breaks on spending. The country needs money in the economy. It needs people making and buying things. Everyone understands war is beneficial to the economy—because of the spending. Why does the understanding stop when war does?


12. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Gun violence is a problem unique to the United States. It happens here. It is a national health problem, and it should be treated as such. The more guns in a society, the more gun deaths in that society. Conclusion: guns kill people.


13. “Terrorists are promised 72 virgins in the afterlife.”

This is Islamophobic nonsense. When Muslims die there are virgins with supposedly beautiful eyes (called houris) who keep you company. Paradise is a sensuous place in Islam. And women get them, too. The number 72 is debatable, depending on sources. Does the Quran say if you murder infidels, you get 72 prostitutes? Um, no. Besides, killing non-Muslims is forbidden in the Quran. “There is no compulsion in religion” (Quran 2:256).


14. “All lives matter.”

This is tribalism: Cops kill Black people. Black people speak up. The “Black Lives Matter” movement begins. Whites get sensitive and seek to change the subject by saying “All Lives Matter” (how adorable), thus making it about “people” and not about White people killing Black people. Instead of “All Lives Matter,” just say “I—and my White tribe—didn’t do anything wrong! We couldn’t have!” Yeah, just say that. And then proudly display your Thin Blue Line flag.


15. “Capitalism is the best system.”

The point is to improve systems, not to praise them. Capitalism is a system of political-economy. It has a violent, one could say horrifying, history. Has it produced impressive results like medical technology? Yes, but this does not outweigh the body count and misery. Capitalism is anti-democratic, concentrates power, and holds the worker in contempt. The firms we are told that represent the height of capitalist achievement despise it: Google, Amazon, Apple. They want nothing to do with a competitive free market. Nothing.


16. “People are naturally greedy.”

I have written about this. You can just read the book. It comes up on the blog quite a bit as well. If humans were [insert negative thing] we wouldn’t be here. We are naturally compassionate and share a universal moral core. This doesn’t mean we’re angels, but we’re not demons either. Just read the bloody book.


17. “That’s just your opinion.” / “It’s subjective.”

This popular protestation simply says, “We all have views, and yours is of no greater value!” This suggests that the playing field is level, we all know the same amount, and then we exchange opinions—all of which are of equal value. But is the world-class chef’s opinion of equal value with the college student who thinks chicken nuggets are the greatest thing? This is not to say that the student should stop liking chicken nuggets, only that the chef’s views are far more informed and therefore not equal to the student’s.


18. “I made something of myself!”

Why is it every time I hear this declaration, it’s an affluent White male? Right around 100 percent of the time. Does the Honduran woman who has three jobs work hard? I have never heard it over the noise made by White men. This does not mean the White male didn’t work hard; he just did not factor in the good fortune he enjoyed along the way. He didn’t spend his formative years in a refugee camp, for a start. Oh, and he’s White and male. The list is quite long.


19. “The poor are lazy and stupid; the rich are smart and work hard.”

Okay, people don’t say this one out loud, but they sure as hell think it. Affluence is by and large the byproduct of privilege. That is not to say the person didn’t work hard (see point 18), but they had a tail wind. The working poor likely did not enjoy such a tail wind, and the bills under those circumstances are nigh impossible to overcome. The economy is not configured to help the working poor; it is, however, quite friendly to the affluent. So, next time you congratulate yourself, do some accounting—the kind that makes one uncomfortable.


20. “The Democrats give all the money away.”

This is not-so-thinly veiled racism. It is also fiction. The Democrats do not tend to the needs of the working poor. They might support more aid programs than the GOP does, but they give money away?? Obama, who was labeled a socialist, was as Wall Street-friendly as they come. Did he give money away hand over fist to Black Americans? No. Do racists and conservatives get tired of being wrong?

Stuff People Say

 

I chose ten things people say a lot and are wrong. Though I have touched on some of these in the past, I wanted them all in one post. Enjoy.


1. “Everything happens for a reason.”

No, it doesn’t. I guess technically, yes. But when people say this, they are not speaking about biology or physics. They have something more cosmic in mind. God killed that little girl with leukemia to … why did he do that? The thinking tends to go one of two ways: (1) God is mysterious and we’ll never know, and (2) maybe God was teaching us a lesson. Both are juvenile.


2. “Those people have been fighting for thousands of years.”

This is what many people reflexively say about the Middle East. I guess it’s supposed to make one sound deep and sophisticated. They are neither. The tensions and violence in the Middle East are a modern phenomenon. Much of it has to do with European and US manipulation. And how many Arab states are at war with one another? Zero.


3. “There’s no black and white, just shades of gray.”

This is part of “the truth is in the middle” nonsense. There are Democrats and there are Republicans—and the truth is in the middle? The halfway point between wrong and wrong is wrong. CNN and Fox? The halfway point between crap news and crap news is crap news. Sometimes things are black and white.


4. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”

This is not a law. This is not anything. Yet, people love to say it. Again, it’s supposed to make them sound deep and sophisticated. There is a similar principle in ancient Roman law; and early Scotland comes up a lot. But if I steal your watch, and then I wear that watch, it is not automatically my watch.


5. “America is a republic, not a democracy.”

[sigh] I hear this one a lot. A republic is a form of government where representatives govern for the citizenry. A democracy is a form of government where the power of governance resides with the people—with the demos, meaning “people.” The United States is best characterized as a democratic republic. The either-or is misleading. When I hear this, it’s like the person expects dramatic music to accompany their announcement. More depth and sophistication.


6. “Colonialism improved Africa (etc.).”

It. did. not. Colonialism spelled hardship, death, and misery for millions of people—and not just in Africa. The European powers deployed soldiers, projected economic power, killed, and tortured people. In the Belgian Congo alone, as many as ten million dead. All the while, the colonized were spoken of as animals. Read Aime Cesaire or Frantz Fanon. Read something, just stop saying this.


7. “Religion started all the major wars.”

Even the wars that were explicitly about or inspired by religion—the Crusades, the Wars of Religion—were about power politics. I struggle to think of a war that was a legitimate theological dispute. This piece of nonsense is a way of condemning religion; it would be better if people condemned ignorance instead. 


8. “If you love your freedom, thank a vet.”

I have family who are vets. This one is not about the military. I have defended the military for years and how they have been mistreated time and again. The United States has been attacked twice in its history: (1) in 1814 by the British and (2) 2001 by al-Qaida. We spend about a trillion dollars a year on defense for what exactly? And the “thank a vet” message has more to do with Lockheed Martin and less to do with the rank and file.


9. “The Bible has been translated so many times.”

Wrong-o. The Bible has been translated once maybe twice. It was written in Greek, Aramaic, and ancient Hebrew. It was then translated into Latin. Then it was translated into English using the original languages and the Latin translations. So, once and in some cases twice. How many people were involved in its writing? Now that’s a lot.


10. “Tomatoes are a fruit.”

They are vegetables. Not fruit. “Fruits” and “vegetables” are culinary concepts. Biologists and botanists do not deal in fruits and vegetables. Plus, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, bell peppers, okra, and egg plants are all fruit?? And strawberries are not?

Josie Long

 Josie Long is an English comic of some renown. This is a 2013 show she did entitled “Cara Josephine.”

The show is charming, very funny, and delightfully odd. I take in a lot of stand-up, but this one is remarkable. No one is doing what Long did in this show. I believe she’s still at it—and if she ever comes to Chicago, I will be going. I hope the club has handicap access.

People have asked me on numerous occasions: “Greg, do you think you’ll ever get married?”

I have two stock replies to this question:

Stock answer #1: “No.”

Stock answer #2: “Why on earth would I do that to myself? The number of times I have seen a married couple and thought to myself ‘That looks nice; I feel like I’m missing out’ is zero. Most times I shudder and think ‘Better you than me.’ The horror."

However, if I ever crossed paths with someone like Josie Long, y’know ... I’d consider it.

EPISODE 23: ADAM SMITH

I talk about my man, Adam Smith. And briefly, Alice Cooper. And … yeah, that’s it.