For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the modern exploration of genius through the lens of big data analytics.
The first attempt to make a rigorous study of human genius was published in 1869 by the English polymath Francis Galton. In Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences, Galton undertook extensive biographical research to identify, classify, and grade geniuses throughout history, with chapter-by-chapter examinations of notable judges, statesmen, “men of science,” commanders, painters, poets, and even oarsmen. Inspired by his cousin Charles Darwin’s just-released theory of natural selection, Galton laid out the first of a set of theories on the ways that human greatness (and non-greatness) might be inherited and nurtured. In later writings, Galton would coin the phrases “nature versus nurture” and — infamously — the word “eugenics.”
Hereditary Genius reflected the prejudices of its time and of its author, who concluded that non-white races were several grades below Anglo-Saxons when it came to producing geniuses. But beyond mere prejudice, it also established a pattern that has bedevilled the scientific study of geniuses up to the present day: the study of genius has tended to focus too much the people who are geniuses and not enough on the far greater number of people who* aren’t.*