Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gamecock]

The Korean kids at my public school all took a "genius test" last week. When the results came back I asked how many of them qualified as geniuses. It was about 40%.

So I'd say look around the next time you're out for a walk. It seems Korea is chuck full of geniuses. You're bound to bump into one.

[Norm]

Perhaps all you need to be a genius is an opinion. Can I interest you in my own personal opinion? So few people stop to ask themselves whether what they say online is of interest to the majority of the readers. The majority that has no interest in their majority brethren whatsoever.

An internet discussion board is always a blank sheet. A temporary cartoon that eternally wipes itself clean. You're all dated as soon as you post those words. You're branded with every word you send in. Every new posts sizzles with an extremely quiet babble-like murmur at its zenith, or else is met with total silence. Nothing you say has any impact on anyone else online. Except upon their opinion of you. Posters are always trying to change other posters' opinions: Other posters' opinions of themselves or to somehow worm into a polite debate with their own personal individual cult-ural ideologies and parameters.

What I'm trying to say, and remember, this is only my humble opinion, is that just because someone seems smarter than you, that doesn't make them a genius. Most people are probably smarter than you are. Geniuses don't always become famous either. Furthermore, having an opinion on what makes someone a genius doesn't make you a genius. A genius is someone who is utterly compelling because they are popularly recognised as either utterly disorientating, utterly sensible or a startling combination of both.
Those are remarkable people.

Did that opinion hold your interest? No, you'll say. But you read it, didn't you? Why? Because I'm a cocksure genius? It's because I wanted you to.

Who recognised the form of the stanza? Hands up.

[jajdude]

Actually Norm I quite enjoyed your post. I was drunk when I posted -- imagine that. I was watching some funny stuff, George Carlin on google videos, and I've seen people call him a genius. I prefer the term be reserved for a select few greats, but in the limited field of comedy he may be good enough, a 'comedic genius' perhaps. I'd have to agree a good few philiosophers meet the criteria (which we don't really know) since they changed and shaped our thinking and acting. I'm hesitant to use the term for comedians or musicians or athletes, and it definitely does not apply to fashion designers or greedy types like Donald Trump, even though he is a clever man to be so successful.

I used 'good' becuase I cannot call an evil person a genius. No serial killer or Hannibal Lecter deserves such a compliment. Some mathematicians and scientists and inventors deserve the compliment. It's unfortunate if some amazing contributions are used for evil purposes, but I don't blame the Einsteins for what cruel people do with their ideas.

[Norm]

Interesting how you see the word 'genius' as a compliment, jajdude. Comedians are sometimes credited as 'profound'. Athletes are 'talented'. Business people tend to be described as 'cunning, and 'hard-nosed'. Musicians are often 'brilliant' and painters 'gifted'. 'Genius' tends to be a term applied most routinely to scientists and mathematicians. It used to be applied to philosophers, but almost never to religious figures. Perhaps because it is the most superlative accolade in English and this connects it to the highly vaunted position science holds in the west. It would be interesting to find out what the Chinese translation for the word is and how it is used, and if there is a more superlative term in their languages. Genius is a term I would apply less to what a person does per se than to what what they do does to me. How does it affect me? Sometimes I'm touched internally and inspired immediately - it makes sense. Sometimes I am baffled by first impressions, but I can sense the sense in what they are doing/saying implicitly, and follow the compulsion out of curiosity - the challenge of lunacy. I'm not so sure that there's much real genius out there. I mean, if supermen visited Earth and checked out Siddartha, Lao Tzu or Leonardo, they might see them as bright sparks demonstrating common sense to an otherwise intellectually dull and ignorant species. Yet to the rest of us boobs, they're enlightened gods beyond whom there is nothing more praiseworthy. I suspect that if these people were asked how they feel about their genius tag, there would be a good degree of humility shown by most, if not all of them. Ghandi made humility almost an art form, and he's often credited with the genius tag. If I thought it would help others to understand anything of what the man was in his spirit, I'd use it to describe him. But it doesn't. Genius is therefore a rather loose term, and one that is notoriously unhelpful for learning what that person is really about.

[jajdude]

Well said. It is rare, as it must be I suppose. Maybe a few hundred deserve it. Maybe there are thousands unknown to the world, who are really special in their own way. I think the influence of genius is one necessary part of the reason we praise someone with the term. Yet there may be a few who don't really influence others much, but are unique and amazing enough in their own way to deserve high praise.

(I'm not really fond of the way the word "chun jae" is thrown around in Korea. No, Min Ho, you are not a genius for becoming proficient in English or even for being brilliant and doing extremely well in school. So, relax, it isn't something to aspire to. You either have it or you don't, and like almost everyone else in the world, you most likely do not have it.)

[hairy sue]

Ed Fredkin is a genius.

[Muramasa blade]