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Genius Requires Just the Right Mix
An anonymous reader writes "LiveScience has an interesting piece taking a look at how genius is rarely developed in a vacuum. From the article: 'The reality is that behind many scientific geniuses, there is at least one other genius, and often a number of them.' It takes much more than a genius pal or predecessor, however, to do great science, according to Simmons. Scientific advances emerge from social, economic and political conditions."
Well, if you perform an aggregate analysis of all the slashdot subscribers, I think you might find one or two savants.
:)
Certainly more than one idiot.
Myself included.
Perhaps you are familiar with the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants"?
There is a school of thought that Sir Isaac said that not so much to be humble, but as a backhanded compliment towards Robert Hooke. Hooke was a bit of a dwarf with a bent back. In other words, Newton was saying that Hooke contributed nothing to his (Newton's) greatness.
you forget that there are more poor people in America than in France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ poverty
USA: 12%
France: 6.5%
sure, the richest people in france are not as rich as they would be in the US, but if you care more for the average Joe than for Paris Hilton, socialism is surely better than the American capitalism
Your math is all wrong. If you have a pool of potential atheletes the size of the U.S. versus the size of Finland you are statistically going to have a better group of atheletes to choose from.
Part of your falacy lies in assuming that the U.S. 'trains' atheletes. In fact most U.S. atheletes are self trained until they get to a national level and even at that they often work with their own coaches, if they had a coach, or move to the Olympic Training Center where they become part of the program.
In most European countries it is different because there is an Atheltic club system where most communities will have a local atheltic club that can offer coaching and competition. The U.S. focuses most of it's energies on sports that aren't Olympic events (Football) and leaves othere atheletes to fend for themselves.
But in the case of Finns, they are just superior. Finland's motto is Sisu, which basically means "blood and guts". Finns are tough fuckers. The whole culture is based on being tough, strong and taking no shit. As the original poster pointed out, Finland has worked hard to establish itself above the typical stereo type held by most Europeans. They kicked out the Soviets and they kicked out the Nazi's. Their environment and culture has selected tough bastard finns for centuries, so it's no suprise they kick ass. Spend a few years in Lahti, you'll see what I mean.