Too often times I see lists of misconceptions like this on the internet that just make it seem like the misconception is a blatant/obvious fact or extremely well researched criticism rather than just coming from someone’s own personal perspective. So I just want to remind readers that these are my opinions on the issue and it’s up to each individual to live and learn and determine whether or not they agree with such things for themselves.
1) IQ=Intelligence
There is no good measure for the highest levels of depth, perspective or wisdom in my opinion. Men like Einstein and Darwin had only above average IQ’s but had far greater insights than men such as William Sidis whose IQ was off the charts.
Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory is the perfect example of our society’s misconception that IQ has anything to do with genius or intelligence. The character of Penny from the same show is actually not aware of her own intelligence. Human social interaction takes such advanced ability that there isn’t even a proper measure for it. People think that if something can’t be measured that it doesn’t exist.
Furthermore, that Goethe was the smartest man in history because of his high IQ is also a misconception in my opinion. Men admired Goethe because he seemed enabled. Why do people pick Goethe over William Sidis? Both men have very high IQ’s. It’s most likely because Goethe looked classy and enabled while Sidis appeared almost autistic or disabled.
Going back to The Big Bang Theory, the men on the show are often described as “geniuses.” I definitely do not think anyone with a high IQ or a PhD is a genius. I would not consider Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, or Raj’s characters to be geniuses.
People whom I consider to be scientific geniuses: Newton, Darwin, Einstein
People whom I do not consider to be geniuses: Bohr, Heisenberg, Planck, Francis Crick, Robert Oppenheimer, Kurt Godel and many, many more. These are men of talent and skill, and many despite opening up new areas of thought did so through luck and talent rather than the raw nature of genius, at least in my opinion. Nowadays, if you can do large calculations in your head or remember the weather of every day since you were born like those autistic savants you are dubbed a genius. During prehistoric times, the human mind evolved to realize that these things are not that important and I would say mother nature got it right up to this very day.
Panoramics 