{"id":250,"date":"2010-03-11T22:40:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T22:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/2010\/03\/11\/where-does-genius-come-from\/"},"modified":"2010-03-11T22:40:02","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T22:40:02","slug":"where-does-genius-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/where-does-genius-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Genius Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Shakespeare\" src=\"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/images\/arts_culture_uploads\/geniusshakespeare_300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"385\" \/>Tracing talent to its origins probably isn\u2019t ever going to be a precise science, but there\u2019s a particular and pervasive brand of genetic determinism that butts its way into discussions, in scientific circles and in the media, about everything from health to intelligence to the roots of genius. According to author David Shenk, this line of argument leads us to make the wrong conclusions about human potential. \u2014<em>KA<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Salon:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>David Shenk\u2019s new book, \u201cThe Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You\u2019ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong,\u201d is 300 pages long, and more than half of those pages are endnotes. You need to offer up a lot of evidence when your goal is to overturn a concept as commonplace as the idea that genes are the \u201cblueprints\u201d for both our physical bodies and our personalities. Above all, what Shenk wants to communicate is that \u201cthe whole concept of genetic giftedness turns out to be wildly off the mark\u2014tragically kept afloat for decades by a cascade of misunderstandings and misleading metaphors.\u201d Instead of acquiescing to the belief that talent is a quality we\u2019re either born with or not, he wants us to understand that anyone can aspire to superlative achievement. Hard, persistent and focused work is responsible for greatness, rather than innate ability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/arts_culture\/item\/where_does_genius_come_from_20100308\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read full story here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tracing talent to its origins probably isn\u2019t ever going to be a precise science, but there\u2019s a particular and pervasive brand of genetic determinism that butts its way into discussions, in scientific circles and in the media, about everything from health to intelligence to the roots of genius. According to \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/where-does-genius-come-from\/\">Continue reading<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-genius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divineearth.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}