I have had the experience of being called a genius and I may very well have been one. It was many years ago, you understand. Not now when I am a 57 year old having lost the intellect, the curiosity and the desire to read that I had for decades.
So what led to my being a genius (however short lived it may have been)?
A major role was played by my enforced solitude.
I will not go into the reasons why I had solitude imposed on me. No point in flogging a dead horse and no one will be interested after so many decades of those events. But I will start this article with a quote from Emerson’s essay on Compensation:
The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him. Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults. As no man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it, so no man has a thorough acquaintance with the hindrances or talents of men, until he has suffered from the one, and seen the triumph of the other over his own want of the same. Has he a defect of temper that unfits him to live in society? Thereby he is driven to entertain himself alone, and acquire habits of self-help; and thus, like the wounded oyster, he mends his shell with pearl.
(Sourced from –
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/compensation.html )
I would not have had the solitude that resulted in my intellectual growth had I not been forced into it. The conventional life with wife and kids and 40 years in an office spending most of the day with colleagues would have destroyed the opportunity I gained by having solitude thrust on me.
This solitude forced on me the following:
- First it saved me from the popular errors of the day. The mistaken opinions common to the average person were never a problem for me because I was not exposed to those opinions. As you must be knowing – learning something new is not very difficult – relatively speaking. What is difficult is unlearning that which you had earlier accepted as true. Your errors work as a form of hypnosis I suppose. It is difficult to snap out of it. Once you have accepted your mistake it is not very hard to learn something new.
- Second, solitude forced me to read. I was not into spirituality when I was young and loved reading. At my age today I have to force myself to read but then I used to read because I loved reading and was intensely interested in certain questions. I do suppose It would have done some amount of reading anyway even with a conventional lifestyle but I would not have been driven to it by the impulses that led me to do my research. You will excuse me but I will not describe what those impulses were. These are private.
- Lastly my solitude forced me to confront and overcome my own conditioning. Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” I was forced to examine my convictions and beliefs about right and wrong, good and bad. Most people don’t do this but most people do not have an interest in reading and philosophy and do not have solitude forced upon them. Combined with the impulses that drove me to do my research I did what Socrates recommended. And all these factors led me to be able to present novel solutions to certain questions that people asked me. I was able to convince them by my answers. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War – Know yourself, know the enemy.
- I taught myself how to think. How I did it is described in the blog post below:
So there you have it. A complete outline of how I became a genius.
You may find this article somewhat abstract and vague but I am sorry I cannot share personal anecdotes for the whole world to see. If you want guidance on what practical steps to take, please get in touch with me.
I cannot at the end of this somewhat long article resist quoting people on the virtues of solitude. Please bear with me. You may find these quotes interesting:
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude – Voltaire
I was never less alone than when by myself – Edward Gibbon
Conversation enriches the understanding but solitude is the school of genius – Gibbon
Solitude is a wonderful thing when one is at peace with oneself and there is a definite task to be accomplished – Johann von Goethe
One can be instructed by society, one is inspired only in solitude – Goethe
Solitude is the fate of all outstanding minds; it will at times be deplored; but it will always be chosen as the lesser of two evils – Arthur Schopenhauer
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has not choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet – Franz Kafka
Solitude is the silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches; yet it sends our living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth – Khalil Gibran
Sorry I rambled on a bit. I was unable to resist the quotes.
I’ll end here. Please explore this site for more articles and let me have your comments. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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