“THERE IS NO GREAT GENIUS WITHOUT SOME TOUCH OF MADNESS” –ARISTOTLE A recent long read feature on Bill Watterson dealt with why he vanished suddenly from the scene, at the peak of his creative prowess. For the uninitiated, Bill Watterson is the God behind the famous cartoon strip,
Shantanu I have to hand it to you ! What a subject you have chosen to write about ! The pressure of wanting to be on top of their game and skill set was the ultimate undoing of their geniuses and fatigue ! Very few have managed to come to terms with this and endured it despite the historical statistics against them ; a very well written and surmised article yet again from your mind !
Is there a difference between geniuses that come from disturbed and impoverished backgrounds and those who come from normal upbringing. Does the upbringing impact the path to genius, the obsession with achievement and perfection which is no doubt hard and extracts a heavy price leading to their torture? There are other examples of genius too. Christiano Ronaldo is one. Nick Kyrgios is probably another tortured genius. And there will many more examples of each type. It is clear it takes a lot to do very well and the toll can be unbearable. Balance is always good and how to achieve it is always the key question
It’s an interesting aspect of financial or educational status playing a role. But I feel that that would sound like an excuse. A genius thrives irrespective, I feel. And the moment they thrive is where the dissonance in their minds happens. I guess that’s where their own education and their support system plays a major role in them being able to exorcise their demons, as was evident in the case of Bill Watterson or J.K. Rowling.
Very Interesting topic chosen by you and a wide perspective given . Was enriching to see and understand facets of Genius people in different fields . Personally , I like the saying : Genius are always eccentric but Vice Versa is not true .
Even in corporate world we have Mavericks Disruptor who end up Bankrupt or Early Death as many ahead of their times.
Cafe Coffee Day .. trendsetter and promoter, Zee with Indian Cricket League. Which got in a revised fame IPL,
Vijay Mallya.. Probably illadvised by politicians to escape when we had bigger defaulters going thru NCLT and living normal business life without public eye now!!
Thanks, Vishal. Geniuses in the corporate world was something I missed out on. Possibly because there’s a huge element of wealth that’s generated by them being capitalist by nature, and as a consequence we tend to not categorise them as tortured, but more as those who ‘torture’ their teams into achieving their vision. Stories of how difficult it was/is working with them are legendary. The contributions of geniuses like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk are no less as they’ve fundamentally changed the way we live by seeing the potential in things or challenging the status quo when the rest thought it was simply not possible.
Shantanu I have to hand it to you ! What a subject you have chosen to write about ! The pressure of wanting to be on top of their game and skill set was the ultimate undoing of their geniuses and fatigue ! Very few have managed to come to terms with this and endured it despite the historical statistics against them ; a very well written and surmised article yet again from your mind !
Thanks, Avinash for your kind words.
I think to be able to withstand the power of their own genius is also a kind of genius that not every genius has.
Is there a difference between geniuses that come from disturbed and impoverished backgrounds and those who come from normal upbringing. Does the upbringing impact the path to genius, the obsession with achievement and perfection which is no doubt hard and extracts a heavy price leading to their torture? There are other examples of genius too. Christiano Ronaldo is one. Nick Kyrgios is probably another tortured genius. And there will many more examples of each type. It is clear it takes a lot to do very well and the toll can be unbearable. Balance is always good and how to achieve it is always the key question
It’s an interesting aspect of financial or educational status playing a role. But I feel that that would sound like an excuse. A genius thrives irrespective, I feel. And the moment they thrive is where the dissonance in their minds happens. I guess that’s where their own education and their support system plays a major role in them being able to exorcise their demons, as was evident in the case of Bill Watterson or J.K. Rowling.
Very Interesting topic chosen by you and a wide perspective given . Was enriching to see and understand facets of Genius people in different fields . Personally , I like the saying : Genius are always eccentric but Vice Versa is not true .
Lovely quote! Thanks, Swapneel.
Nicely summed up!!
Even in corporate world we have Mavericks Disruptor who end up Bankrupt or Early Death as many ahead of their times.
Cafe Coffee Day .. trendsetter and promoter, Zee with Indian Cricket League. Which got in a revised fame IPL,
Vijay Mallya.. Probably illadvised by politicians to escape when we had bigger defaulters going thru NCLT and living normal business life without public eye now!!
Thanks, Vishal. Geniuses in the corporate world was something I missed out on. Possibly because there’s a huge element of wealth that’s generated by them being capitalist by nature, and as a consequence we tend to not categorise them as tortured, but more as those who ‘torture’ their teams into achieving their vision. Stories of how difficult it was/is working with them are legendary. The contributions of geniuses like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk are no less as they’ve fundamentally changed the way we live by seeing the potential in things or challenging the status quo when the rest thought it was simply not possible.