Hacker News Reader

Comment by rendall | Hacker News Reader

I know well the ex-wife and children of the inventor of an influential computer language. According to them, this language is his obsession to the exclusion of all else. They describe him as "an asshole". He habitually berated his children for not being passionate about anything. He is famous, but lost his family.

I think about this fellow often, when I worry that I'm not fulfilling my potential. If genius means emotional misery for my family, then I am fine with more pedestrian accomplishments

View on HN

We all have fairly similar hardware, brains don't vary that much between people. I think what unites a lot of "geniuses" is actually monomania. Whether it be athletes, scientists or musicians, being obsessed with a single activity will of course help you excel, but to the detriment of everything else in your life.

This sounds nice but is simply not true.

This resonated with me significantly. Thanks for the insight!

Does it have to mean that?

John von Neumann, a genius if there ever was one, was apparently a hoot.

"Von Neumann is remembered as a man of warm personality: courteous, charming, and jovial, with an often ribald, sometimes wry, sense of humor that made him excellent company and gained him a reputation as a bon vivant. He was fond of limericks and practical jokes and hosted frequent Princeton parties. He was also well known as a reckless driver, once emerging, so the story goes, from a smashed car with the explanation: "I was proceeding down the road. The trees on the right were passing me in orderly fashion at 60 MPH. Suddenly, one of them stepped out in my path. Boom!""

https://www.ias.edu/von-neumann

I suppose the answer to that is whether some 'geniuses' also are known for treating others well. As I recall, Shannon was described as a nice guy who seemed to care about others or at least respected their feelings. Perhaps technical genuises are better about this than artistic geniuses?

I suspect the majority of genuii are self absorbed. Certainly that aspect of (mis)behavior is a mainstay of the genius stereotype. Or maybe that portrayal in movies is just the conceit of lazy scriptwriters...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com