What’s the deal with genius? You hear of people being called geniuses (genii?) when they are in their teens and twenties and then…nothing. Do they lose their touch or do we become desensitized to their talents, causing them to either work harder or give up?
As an example: Paul McCartney rolls out of bed one morning and writes “Yesterday” while still half asleep. It becomes the most recorded song ever. Give him a few years and he’s writing “Wino Junko.” What gives?
Many children who are prodigies in a certain field (whether it’s piano or math or art) are merely precocious – they develop to a high level of ability at an early age. Compared with other children of the same age, they may have an astonishing ability to do what they do, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to astonish as adults. To succeed in their field as adults, they would need the same things non-prodigy professionals in that field would need: good instructors, dedication, practice, sometimes luck. Ability alone does not determine success in many fields. Also, the sheer number of adults who are quite good at a particular thing may diminish the impressiveness of a prodigy in later years – there are many good professional cello players, but not too many 8-year-olds who play almost as well as a professional. In many cases they may fall out of the limelight, but continue to do well in their field.
There was an article in Scientific American a few years ago that found that people who have genius-level intelligence are actually very likely to succeed as adults; intelligence is, they found, strongly correlated with income and other measures of success. The article (which may be on the Web somewhere, or I can look for a date if desired) argued that people of genius-level intelligence essentially have to do something to squander their advantage – becoming an alcoholic, for example – in order not to reasonably succeed.
About decline in artists and musicians: Taking McCartney as an example, it may be that his later work was of equal musical quality to Yesterday, but didn’t have the same popular appeal, and didn’t seem quite as good next to his early work because people had grown accustomed to his style. It may also be that he (as John Lennon can almost certainly be said to have done) went off in strange new experimental directions that didn’t appeal to the masses. Once a musician masters the skill of creating popular music, they may well move on to new areas of music that aren’t so popular. Finally, it could have been the product of fame and the things that come with fame. It’s not like he ran out of creativity, and there are creative people in all fields that continue to produce inspired new works until their deaths, sometimes even prolifically. That is probably the case more often than that of the ‘fallen artist’, and for each fallen artist there is probably an individual explanation.
The plural in Latin is genii, and it means ‘spirits’.
Correction: Paul wrote “Scrambled Eggs”. He later rewrote it in studio as “Yesterday”.
What exactly do you mean by genius? A person may be a genius based on iq or talent, and/or the person may produce a work of genius.
In the former case, people stay as geniuses, but may not be as productive. For one thing a successful person may be expected to produce faster than an unknown, and may not have the time to get it perfect. Second, a work may be considered as genius for being new . If the artist produces similar works, they are not new anymore. Even a genius has trouble producing totally new stuff all the time, and even if they do it might not click. Look at how Dylan has long periods of producing junk before the genius spouts up again. Very few are like Beethoven who can do their best work at the end of their lives.
Also, the circumstances may change. How much of the genius of Lennon and McCartney came from their interaction, whether through true collaboration or just the pressure of pleasing the other. Neither of them did as good work after the split. Certainly the seeds of the later treacle can be seen in some of his work in the Beatles.
Not to mention as time goes on “you get a little bit older and a little bit slower.”