Many highly intelligent people are capable of performing practical tasks, but there is a large sector of this group whose interests in life center mainly about ideas and concepts. In my study of genius, I have found both types. Physicist Richard Feynman was fascinated by radios shortly after their invention and during his early teenage years, he enjoyed the challenge of diagnosing and fixing radios that were not working. He made a hobby of safe cracking and applied his physics to help with the creation of the atomic bomb.
Nikola Tesla was another brilliant person who not only knew how to change a plug, but created the electric grid, based on alternating current, that brings electric power to our homes. Elon Musk is a modern genius who has brought us Space X, ChatGPT, Neuralink, and a host of other enterprises that have widespread practical applications.
Then there are other geniuses who live in an entirely abstract world. You find many of them engaged in mathematical or theoretical physics research, and some in the social sciences. They have no interest in practical matters. The mathematician Erdos was a nomad, living out of a suitcase and inviting himself as a houseguest to visit mathematicians and work on problems. He did not know how to tie his own shoes or open a milk carton and, his only possessions were what he could carry in his weather-worn suitcase.
Einstein was also entirely immersed in physics and didn’t want to wast time on anything outside the world of ideas. Einstein’s friend and colleague Leopold Infeld shared in an interview a variety of delightful stories about Albert’s disinterest in cooking, cleaning and shaving. On one of his visits to Einstein’s home, he observed him attempting to boil an egg in his soup to avoid using a second pot.
On another visit, Infeld happened to witness Einstein as he was shaving and complaining with each stroke about the discomfort. When Infeld asked why he was shaving with soap instead of shaving cream, Einstein asked, “Vat is dis shaving cream?”
Infeld later bought him some shaving cream and watched how Einstein applied it as though he were icing a cake. Then he began the scraping, while chirping with delight at the ease with which the razor passed through the foam.
“Dis is a vonderful invention; I didn’t know about dis before.”
On a visit several months later, Infeld asked, “How are you enjoying your shaving experience?”
“There’s no enjoying.” responded Einstein.
“Why? Are you not using shaving cream, the way I showed you?”
“No,” responded Einstein.
“Why not?” asked the bewildered Infeld.
“Because it ran out,” responded Einstein in a matter-of-fact demeanor.
Some brilliant people live entirely in the world of ideas and have little or no interest in practical things. What they speak about may appear to be trivia, but embedded in this “trivia” are often ideas that change the world.
