Rhody Trader

There’s an article on the Time website I found interesting. It’s Is Genius Born or Can it Be Learned. As the title suggests, it talks about the whole nature/nurture debate.

Of course this is also the subject of one of the classic trading movies, Trading Places. In the film the Duke brothers place a wager of whether they could turn a petty street hood into a premier trader and at the same time turn a great trader into a homeless person (basically). Hilarity ensues.

The time article doesn’t really resolve the issue. It just highlights the points of view on things. They run from genius being exclusively genetic to it being learnable and points in between.

I recently became a member of Mensa, which is the organization for folks with an IQ in the top 2%. I’ve known for a while that I’ve got a bit more than average intelligence, but never really got around to finding out how far it went. Since joining Mensa, though, I’ve found myself looking back in life to recall times when others have identified me as being smarter than others. I never really thought much about it along the way, though. It was kind of like the guy who is completely oblivious to the crush a girl has on him while all of his friends see it plain as day.

My own personal view on the nature/nurture thing is that genius probably requires a base intelligence starting point, but also requires stimulation to properly develop. It’s kind of like a premier athlete. They may be able to run fast and jump high, but without specific training and experience they will never become a star.

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