SheldonFAN.com

TOPIC: What Qualifies As Real Genius?

Just how smart is real smart? What does "intelligence" even mean, exactly? More important, what is it that geniuses do with themselves? It must be tiring carrying those massive, bulging brains around each day, after all.

Many who spend their time thinking about "who is smartest" (clearly ego maniacs themselves) consider a real genius to be someone with a 162 or higher score on an intelligence test.

Statistically speaking, 99.99% of us literally have no idea what it means to be that smart. We're talking a full-to-bursting neurons, real genius here.

Almost terrifyingly, while the 160 IQ range may be the starting mark for real genius there exist smarter people even beyond. Yes, we mean the rare person like Sheldon Cooper. Superior even to other brainiacs and god among ants to the rest of us.

Several times Sheldon has revealed his IQ as a brainy 187. We know he was only being modest, like always. We respect that Sheldon, thank you for your ever gracious diffidence on the matter.

(Real geniuses like it when we lesser beings grovel. Watch any genius-alien-visits-earth movie and you'll see. Common knowledge.)

Super Smart, Nah ... Nah!

So Sheldon and the extremely rare others like him aren't just "real" genius. You know, puny 173, Leonard type intelligence. No, Sheldon and his ilk are "really real" genius.

So, we get that, but what does it mean exactly?

Other than getting to tease the rest of us for having an intelligence lower to them than baboons have to us, you might say geniuses are simply much faster learners.

You should know, baboons are pretty stupid as primates go. Orangutans top the chart-- Sheldons to the ape world, if you will. If a genius calls you an orangutan it's probably meant as a compliment. Baboon, not so much.

By definition, intelligence is an assessment of how fast a person learns, and how well what is learned can be used to solve problems. What may take years or even an entire lifetime for some of us to learn can be genius-handled in mere months. They really learn that fast.

Consider boy-wonder, Michael Kearney.

While most of us were struggling with letters of the alphabet and basic addition, 6 year-old Kearney was wrapping up homework on Shakespeare and calculus to get his high school diploma. At age 8, an Associates in Science degree soon followed alongside a Bachelors in Anthropology at 10, giving smarty-pants Kearney a Guinness World Record as well.

Yet, even Kearney's IQ might pale against others before him, including such notables as Einstein (estimated at between 160 and 180 IQ), Bill Sidis (purportedly a 191+ IQ), and Leonardo Da Vinci (some claim Da Vinci to have a 220 IQ).

Genius Slackers vs. Sheldon Cooper

You might think being super smart would lead a person to super success. For most that idea may even hold true. For some others, well, geniuses can be mental slackers and wander-offs just like the rest of us.

Thank goodness, too. It's the only way we at SheldonFan.com convince others that we're just bored whiz kids caught up in, you know, video games and stuff. Never mind that we aren't kids. Heck, we aren't even good at video games.

One of the best known genius slackers, Bobby Fischer, didn't start off as a slacker. Quite the opposite. Fischer is thought to have the same IQ as our beloved (and highly successful) Sheldon Cooper, by the way.

Fischer began with a bang, winning chess matches and major championships like nobody's business. He was so successful that he is still thought of as one of the greatest chess players of all time--he's the only American to win a #1 world ranking, for example.

Yet, all his quick-firing brain matter didn't stop him from more or less dropping out of life. For decades he wandered the world as a real genius slacker, sometimes embroiled in controversy (often times his own doing), only to later die in comparable obscurity in 2008.

Others are much more dedicated and involved with their genius, however. Take Sheldon, as a great [editor note: um, the best!?] example.

Sheldon works on problems that induces loss of consciousness in the rest of us. He solves these complex problems by evolving knotty ideas about things like "string theory." (Knotty, get it?)

Don't worry if you aren't familiar; string theory is a pet project for special kinds of geniuses who prefer to be called "theoretical physicists." Geniuses like Sheldon. And sometimes Leonard too, we suppose.

(Leonard is actually an experimental physicist, occasionally dabbling in theoretical physics on his whiteboard at home. To provide comedic value for Sheldon, we can only guess.)

Sheldon is young and filled with the vigor of life. Ready, focused, a force of genius will on the landscape of mediocrity. Nobel Prizes are the sort of thing Sheldon will use to keep magnets useful on his refrigerator. A really real genius.

So, all things considered we already know what life as a real genius is like. C'mon ... Sheldon? Duh!?

Other Resources

Still want to know more? Check out our article sources for additional information:

Bobby-Fischer.net

Chimps Knocked Off Top of the IQ Tree, UK Times Online | Jonathan Leake and Roger Dobson

What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults?, ABC News