
The myth of the lone genius - evo_9
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120316-the-myth-of-the-lone-genius
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droithomme
Seems to be a trend nowadays attacking the fact that lone geniuses exist and
tend to be outside the direct control of bankers and bureacratic corporations.

Crick and Watson never claimed to be lone geniuses working in their garage
alone when they decoded DNA, so debunking that they are lone geniuses is not a
particularly compelling argument. However, hallucinations brought on by LSD
trips were a key factor, which is interesting and seems to have contributed
more to their success than working in a well funded lab at a corporation,
though that certainly had its own benefits as well as disadvantages.

It's also never been contested that lone geniuses do in fact build upon
previous work and discoveries made throughout history, in addition to making
their own contributions. So pointing that out is not debunking "the myth" of
lone geniuses either.

Tesla, Erastothenes, Philo Farnsworth, even Einstein in the patent office all
came up with original ideas.

It's interesting when there is a flurry of articles making coordinated attacks
upon the very idea of creative individualism. Often when things are so
coordinated there is a PR firm behind it. Who is their client is the question
I ask.

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troels
I upvoted you because I agree with your main point, but I think you're veering
into conspiracy teritory with that last paragraph. Who the heck would benefit
from such a broad "attack" anyway? Much more likely that it's group dynamics
(or trend or whatever you want to call it).

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bjornsing
Agree, a coordinated conspiracy seems incredibly unlikely. :)

I think it may actually be very simple: a wast majority of people know they
have no chance of being a "lone genius", and that it would therefore not be
beneficial for them to promote geniality as a leadership quality.

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aiscott
The Media are a group (or several large groups) and as such as subject to
group-think like any other group. I believe a lot of conspiracy related
accusations could be attributable to the natural tendency toward group-think.

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ColinWright

        BBC Future (international version)
    
        We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK
        as it is part of our international service and is not funded
        by the licence fee.
    

Anyone got a transcript?

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swombat
What a fabulous perversion of the licence fee concept! The fee is meant to
enable the BBC to provide independent journalism in the UK, and so they now
decide that something that's not funded by the fee is not available in the
Uk???

How bizarrely stupid.

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DanBC
Region locking is not limited to only the BBC. Region locking is just run of
the mill stupid.

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rhizome
Yeah, but locking out the region of origin is pretty comical.

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swombat
Locking out the region that pays most of your company's salaries is especially
comical...

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Eliezer
Einstein. Newton. Leo Szilard. Good day, sir.

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elchief
Wozniak

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bfrs
I couldn't get past the backwards bending royal ass kissing.

