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Albert Einstein 'found genius through autism'
Telegraph ^ | 21 Feb 2008 | Nic Fleming

Posted on 02/22/2008 10:44:32 AM PST by BGHater

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1 posted on 02/22/2008 10:44:34 AM PST by BGHater
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To: BGHater
Prof Fitzgerald's book "Genius Genes: How Asperger Talents Changed the World" was published at the end of last year,

Oh, I see. All the genius in the world came from autism. Not hard work and simple genius. God forbid really smart people be recognized as such. It would offend the stupid.

2 posted on 02/22/2008 10:47:24 AM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!)
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To: BGHater

This verifies what I have been claiming all along. I am a genius, in my own way.


3 posted on 02/22/2008 10:47:53 AM PST by BipolarBob (I've been stung by honey bees and bumblebees. I don't want no huckle bee.)
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To: BGHater
They can persist with a topic for 20-30 years without being distracted by what other people think.

Some can go through an entire lifetime without being distracted by what anybody thinks.

4 posted on 02/22/2008 10:49:07 AM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: raybbr

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking this guy must be speaking from experience rather than knowledge.


5 posted on 02/22/2008 10:49:32 AM PST by DoughtyOne (We've got Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb & Tweedle Dumber left. Name them in order. I dare ya.)
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To: raybbr
God forbid really smart people be recognized as such. It would offend the stupid.

It's called political correctness.

6 posted on 02/22/2008 10:51:36 AM PST by darkangel82 (If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. (Say no to RINOs))
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To: BGHater

Psychology once again states: people who are self-confident, read, are not sex-crazed, and don’t believe in collectivist policies have SOME sort of mental illness.

Allow me to skewer this soft science with something learned in high-level math classes: all measurement is done from a base: be it a point, line, or plane.
Why should psychologists, who are all pretty screwed up, use themselves as the reference point?


7 posted on 02/22/2008 10:51:41 AM PST by ClaudiusI
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To: RightWhale
Some can go through an entire lifetime without being distracted by what anybody thinks.

8 posted on 02/22/2008 10:53:23 AM PST by Bratch (“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” --- Edmund Burke)
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To: raybbr
and Einstein worked in a patent office because he was too disruptive to get a university job.

So now disruptiveness = autism/Asperger's?

9 posted on 02/22/2008 10:53:37 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Bratch

That example will do since probably nobody here has ever heard of the family that lives across the street up the road.


10 posted on 02/22/2008 10:58:17 AM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: BGHater

I have noticed that the super successful people I know personally all literally have OCD. My son has asperger’s. He is getting his doctor of pharmacy degree while completing his requirements for his black belt in karate. He has never had a date. As someone who has been involved with autism spectrum disorders, I can see it with Einstein. Asperger’s is sometimes known as the Absent Minded Professor Syndrom.


11 posted on 02/22/2008 11:02:28 AM PST by Soliton
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To: BGHater
autistic repetitiveness were critical to the success of politicians such as Charles de Gaulle,

His disease was megalomania, with a special French gene variant that makes the disease especially severe, not autism.

12 posted on 02/22/2008 11:06:13 AM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: raybbr
I would not say that "all genius" came about because of autism. But it is undeniable that unusual brain wiring in the brain can produce some amazing results.

I know a couple of guys diagnosed with Asperger's. They are two of the best code writers in the biz. Another person I know of sustained a brain injury and all of the sudden could learn to play several musical instruments. He had no noticible musical talent prior to the injury.

Achievements in life come from a sum of all our parts and efforts. Why not acknowledge that our makeup sometimes enhances our abilities towards certain achievements?

13 posted on 02/22/2008 11:06:34 AM PST by Ghengis (Of course freedom is free. If it wasn't, it would be called expensivedom. ~Cindy Sheehan 11/11/06)
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To: Ghengis; raybbr
Oops! Meant to say: But it is undeniable that unusual brain wiring can produce some amazing results.
14 posted on 02/22/2008 11:08:33 AM PST by Ghengis (Of course freedom is free. If it wasn't, it would be called expensivedom. ~Cindy Sheehan 11/11/06)
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To: BGHater
“... Einstein worked in a patent office because he was too disruptive to get a university job.”

The author doesn’t have a clue. Einstein worked in a patent office initially because he didn’t have a doctoral degree. After he received his doctorate, Einstein held positions in several prominent universities - including Princeton after he left Germany in 1933. Einstein certainly “disrupted” Newtonian physics, but I don’t remember any of the biographies of him or his contemporaries that I have read stating that he was an especially “difficult” or “disruptive” colleague.

15 posted on 02/22/2008 11:08:49 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: Soliton

My problem is that I’m not OCD enough.


16 posted on 02/22/2008 11:08:50 AM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: BGHater

People. Lighten. Up.

I don’t see all the P.C., pinko liberalism some of you appear to see in this article. And the article DOES NOT SAY that being autistic CAUSES genius, let alone ALL genius.

I’ve seen this happen before. Some Freepers jump on any article about psychology, with ready-to-paste boilerplate about how psychology is about nothing but excusing criminals and unruly children. Even when there isn’t a hint of such stuff in the article.

I have Asperger’s. I have experienced most of what is described in this article—except the part about writing tons of books and being a genius.

What I have experienced is that having some of these characteristics can help with tasks I’m good at, and makes other tasks just about impossible.


17 posted on 02/22/2008 11:19:28 AM PST by Arthur McGowan
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To: riverdawg
Einstein worked in a patent office initially because he didn’t have a doctoral degree.

He couldn't get into a program that led to a doctorate because he marched to his own drumbeat. Not "disruptive", he just didn't jump through the flaming poodle hoop that was presented to him in school.

Once he was in the patent office, he could breeze through work that would take a lesser man all day to do, and spend the rest of the time reading physics journals.

18 posted on 02/22/2008 11:20:31 AM PST by thulldud (Insanity: Electing John McCain again and expecting a different result.)
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To: Ghengis
I know a couple of guys diagnosed with Asperger's. They are two of the best code writers in the biz. Another person I know of sustained a brain injury and all of the sudden could learn to play several musical instruments. He had no noticible musical talent prior to the injury.

Seems to me that, in theory, if a big bump on the head can do that, there ought to be surgeries that could unleash prodigious talent.

19 posted on 02/22/2008 11:21:28 AM PST by Arthur McGowan
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To: Ghengis

There are Freepers who get their undies in a knot whenever anyone suggests that accomplishment, wealth, great learning, or any such thing is caused by anything other than good old Protestant hard work, reciting the Pledge every morning, sitting still in your desk, and doing what the government school teacher says. Anybody who does things in a way that’s at all eccentric must be a hippie.


20 posted on 02/22/2008 11:25:15 AM PST by Arthur McGowan
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