The 5 personality traits of a genius

What is the defining characteristic of a genius? It is a question that humanity has asked itself throughout the ages. Many want to achieve excellence but only a select few achieve such an undertaking.

In most cases, we do not understand how exactly that person could have got there. For what reasons were Picasso or Dalí able to develop such fruitful and innovative works? Why did Mozart have a capacity to compose greater than anyone at a young age? How could Albert Einstein get to formulate theories as abstruse as that of relativity?

What is the personality of geniuses like?

It is often said that geniuses are thanks to a innate gift: they contain the potential necessary to develop a talent in a certain activity. This view is not entirely accurate. To be sure, geniuses are naturally talented, but potentiality is not the defining characteristic of genius. Next we will detail a total of five traits that every genius fulfills.

1. They are analytical and impulsive

To write your book Creativity (Paidós, 2008), the psychologist

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi he interviewed ninety-one geniuses, from many different disciplines, including fifteen Nobel laureates. One of the conclusions reached with this research is that highly talented people have two characteristics: curiosity and impulsiveness. “They are people abducted by their work, and despite being surrounded by more talented people, his immeasurable desire to know reality is a defining feature ”, he argues Csikszentmihalyi.

2. Regulated training does not matter so much as dedication to your specialty

We tend to relate the academic record with excellence, but there is no such relationship in many of the cases. The University of California Professor Dean simonton he researched and analyzed the academic records of 350 geniuses who lived between 1480 and 1860, among the which were names like Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Ludwig van Beethoven or Rembrandt.

He established that the level of formal education each had received and He set parameters of excellence according to his works. The conclusions were unexpected. The relationship between training and excellence made up a bell-shaped graph: the greatest geniuses brilliant were those whose educational level was medium, which could be equivalent to a diploma. Those with more or less background were less creative.

The brightest they continued to study in a self-taught way, in addition to being in love with their work, spending most of the day on their studies and work. The top-ranking creators are those who take their passion to the extreme.

3. Self-critical

The psychologist Howard Gardner he claims that great creators like Picasso, Freud or Stravinsky They had a similar pattern of work, based on trial and error: they observed a problem, they devised a solution, they experimented it and they composed a systematic feedback. "Great guys," Gardner explains, "spend a lot of time thinking about what they want to achieve, whether they have been successful or not, and if they haven't, what they need to change."

Creative minds are also the most methodical.

4. They are dedicated, lonely and can become neurotic

The creators are continually reflecting on his work and this has some disadvantages. Thinking about work without stopping leads to a drain on personal relationships. Csikszentmihaly states that most geniuses fail to establish social relationships during his youth, mainly because of his curiosity for disciplines that are foreign to his similar. The rest of the adolescents maintain a gregarious attitude and are not usually willing to spend time honing their talents.

Sometimes the dedication it takes to be a genius can be seen as a pathology. These ongoing sacrifices can turn into obsession - exceptional creators don't have to be happy. We just have to stop to see the austerity with which Sigmund Freud, T.S. Eliot or Mohandas Gandhi, as well as the terrible self-imposed loneliness that marked the life of Albert Einstein. Most geniuses develop neurotic features: their dedication made them selfish and maniacs.

5. They work out of passion, not money

True geniuses live their work with love, rarely indulging in it for money or reward, but for passion and vocation. “The creators who have perfected their work by the pleasure of the activity itself more than extrinsic rewards, they have engendered an art that has been socially judged as privileged ”, states the writer Dan Pink in his book The surprising truth about what motivates us (Planet, 2000).

"Likewise, it is those who were less motivated by extrinsic rewards who ultimately received them."

Some great phrases to ponder

Along the history, many brilliant minds have left us pearls in the form of phrases that invite us to reflect on many aspects of reality. We have compiled them in an article in which in addition to the famous quotes, we have wanted to develop a reflection or interpretation of each one of them.

• You can read it here: "120 wise phrases to reflect on life"

Bibliographic references:

• Maíllo, Adolfo (1970). Introduction to psychology. Mc Graw-Hill Book Company.
• Pueyo, Antonio Andrés (2013). «5». Psychology of individual differences (in Catalan). Barcelona university bookstore.
• Triglia, Adrián; Regader, Bertrand; García-Allen, Jonathan (2018). What is intelligence? From IQ to multiple intelligences. EMSE Publishing.