Hacker News Reader

Comment by hoffcoder | Hacker News Reader

"...and I suspect that a more free-wheeling, anarchic organization is the secret of our greater capacities of creativity, imagination, thinking outside the box and all that, and the price we pay for it is our susceptibility to obsessions, mental illnesses, delusions and smaller problems."

Great observation! Isn't it true that the geniuses of this world have very often been afflicted with mental abnormalities? Take the most brilliant mathematicians, engineers, scientists; so many of them faced such problems. There indeed seems to be some connection between the mind's capacity to innovate and create and its capacity to suffer delusions and obsessions. Take examples of Gödel, Turing, Tesla, Hemingway, etc. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/mad-geniu...

View on HN

>geniuses of this world have very often been afflicted

Maybe so, but don't forget, there is no "normal" human being. We create the criteria of genius, normal and mental illness all in order to fulfill our social needs. It's possible we categorize certain individuals as genius and afflicted just so we can deny them the fruits of their labor. It's possible we create the concept of normalcy just so we can leverage techniques of mass manufacturing and social control.

It's possible that innovation without being identified as a genius is a smart way to escape the disadvantages of being labelled afflicted. It's possible Dennett's newest change-of-mind is just an update to the fairy tale that tells those in charge how to handle workers for the maximum effect and least disruption.

After all, who wants anarchic disruptions in the social order? We want reliable electrical networks and food delivery, not creative, experimental protests. So instead of heeding the words directly of those with insight, appeal to their ego, call them geniuses, strip their innovations to the bare minimum and label them as crazy or problematic to keep them separated safely from others. (cough) Torvalds (cough) RMS.

Maybe so. Even though I am not aware of any studies of this kind of a link between insanity and genius, the kinds of afflictions I am talking about are not imaginary. They are real mental disorders like OCD, bipolar disorder etc.

> Isn't it true that the geniuses of this world have very often been afflicted with mental abnormalities?

In a manner of speaking. People who prefer conformity, who think everyone should be the same, can't resist labeling smart people as "afflicted". This is a practice with a long history. The most recent, wildly popular effort was called "Asperger Syndrome", one that's just now being abandoned because of the damage it caused.

To someone who thinks everyone should be the same, anything that sets one apart in a behavioral sense is a "mental abnormality". But evolution by natural selection requires diversity, so in a more basic biological sense, it's the people who want everyone to be the same that represent the abnormal state of mind.

> Take the most brilliant mathematicians, engineers, scientists; so many of them faced such problems.

The problems faced by bright people are mostly caused by their dumb neighbors' belief that everyone should be like them.

Again, the disorders I was talking about are not imaginary. They are diagnosed diseases like Bipolar disorder, OCD etc.

If your mind can range over a wider variety of ideas, you're more likely to discover good ones that others haven't discovered yet. You're also more likely to discover ideas that are completely batshit insane, because you've got fewer filters to prevent yourself from taking them seriously.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com